WHERE IS HE
by azurefang
Summary: New story. In New Orleans Elijah runs into a friend, an old man. His is shocked to see who the man's companion is and doesn't know what he should do about it. Story includes Elijah and his siblings.
1. Chapter 1

_WHERE IS HE?_

_A/N New story. In New Orleans, Elijah runs into a friend, an old man. He is shocked to see who the man's companion is and doesn't know what he should do about it. Story includes Elijah and his siblings._

_Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me. Original characters, such as Peter, are mine._

Elijah Mikaelson stormed from the enclosed courtyard out onto the sidewalk. He was angry with his brother Klaus, which was not unusual. Klaus' pride was making him do things that Elijah thought unwise, but Klaus could be very stubborn. "Stubborn" was an understatement. Klaus could be ruthlessly obsessive.

The French Quarter was ruled at present by Klaus and Marcel, both of whom wanted to be top dog, although for now Marcel had backed off. What Elijah wanted most was for his siblings and himself to be close, to reside in New Orleans in relative peace and to enjoy the place. In addition, he wanted Haley, the female werewolf still in human form, to be safe and at ease. She was carrying Klaus' baby, despite all odds. Elijah was very fond of Haley and he wanted the new baby to be born, a new Mikaelson generation. What he wanted and what was happening were two different things. Despite everything he had tried to do, life had been nothing but chaos since they had come back to the city.

On this morning the weather in New Orleans was very pleasant, neither hot and muggy nor cold and damp. It was just after sunrise and the night-walking vampires had retreated to places where they tended to sleep most of the day or to hang out in windowless rooms. Elijah didn't have to hide from the sun, even though he, too, was a vampire. There was too much to worry about and to do instead of sleeping the day away.

The sidewalks were mostly deserted. The French Quarter usually was a place of afternoon and night activity, crowded with tourists and locals. But at this hour, no live music blasted from the bars and clubs. No one was standing on the balconies and galleries of the houses to watch the people down on the streets and sidewalks.

Elijah walked across the street, avoiding a delivery truck slowly trundling along the one-way street. This was the time of day Elijah enjoyed. It usually calmed his nerves and he expected it to do so now. It would have been even nicer if he were out of town and at the white-columned mansion. He had a lot to think about, but tried not to worry. His brother Klaus and his sister Rebekah were always in trouble, trying to deal with the other vampires of the city as well as the in-city witches and the pack of werewolves, stuck in their wolfish form, lurking outside the city.

Situated on the mighty Mississippi River and close to the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans was one of his favorite places and had been for about three hundred years. Of course, it was not old compared to Old World cities, but it had been settled a long time ago for an American city.

He strolled along the street and turned toward the river at the next block. Due to the various countries that had controlled New Orleans in the early days, each street had three names, or rather the same name in three languages. Royal Street was _Rue Royale_ in French and _Calle Real_ in Spanish. New Orleans didn't forget its heritage, especially in the French Quarter, still often called the _Vieux Carre._

He came to Jackson Square park in front of the cathedral and continued to the open space up on the levee. From there was the view of the wide, brown river. He well remembered when all alone this river bank had been the tall-masted ships, tied up to receive cargo and passengers. A hundred and fifty years ago, it had been the paddle-wheeled ships and river boats. Then came the big steamships. Large warehouses and docks had been built all alone the shore at the city so that there had been few places where a person could easily go and see the river.

Now, there was this nice area, cleared of warehouses and made tourist-friendly. There were still a couple of paddle-wheeled sight-seeing boats, but mostly there were the cargo ships and the tug-like tow boats that pushed the rafts of barges up and down the river.

Elijah stood quietly alone and watched the murky water flow by. The river had always called to him in its own way. In truth, most of the rivers of the world appealed to him. They could be peaceful or raging. They had great power. His brother Klaus could be like that, and just as hard to control.

His thoughts were interrupted by some voices further to his right. Looking in that direction he saw a small group of people, four males. As he watched and caught the few words not carried away by the breeze, he realized that two of the males were threatening the other two. The attackers were young, one white and one African American, and both were wielding knives. From what Elijah could hear, they wanted to rob the other two of their money.

The two victims had their backs to Elijah so that he could not make out who or what they were, but he could see that one was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and seemed to be cringing back away from the two bold ones. He was afraid and making small whimpering noises, pleading not to be hurt.

The fourth man was older and shorter than the other three. He had on a cap, but Elijah could see some white hair. In addition, the fellow had a cane. He started waving his cane at the younger aggressors and telling them to back off. They just laughed at him and called him "grandpa."

The confrontation seemed unfair, not to mention dangerous and illegal. The old man and the timid fellow needed help and Elijah, being a decent fellow, intended to give it. He started to head toward the four and saw the old man raise his cane. The piece of wood rose and crashed down on the nearest man's arm, the one with the knife.

Even from a distance, Elijah heard the blow and heard the crack of a bone. He also realized that the cane was not made of wood, but of steel. The old man had strength to be able to wield such a heavy weapon and make it look easy. While the injured attacker yowled and drew away, the old man turned toward the other knife wielder. It was then that Elijah saw the profile of the old man's face and it was familiar. The name Theo came to mind.

Theo didn't need any help. He was a vampire and could kill his attackers with that heavy cane if he wanted to do so. Elijah slowed his approach until he was just a few yards away and then he stopped to watch.

"Leave!" the old man snapped at the second would-be thief. "Take your friend and go before I split your head open like a melon."

"The cane ain't wood! He broke my arm! Let's get outta here," the first young man cried, cradling his arm. "Get my knife!"

The second fellow bent down and grabbed the knife while still threatening with his own. Then he ducked away and the two of them hurried away, yelling back threats they probably would never try to carry out.

"We're safe now, Sven," the old man said, turning to the youth cowering behind him. "It's all right. They're gone."

It was then that Theo saw Elijah and recognized him with a look of surprise and then pleasure. Theo glanced around, saw no one anywhere close, and said in a hushed voice, "Elihu! Is that you?"

"Yes, but call me 'Elijah' here. I'm so surprised to see you in New Orleans."

"I am 'Peter' these days," the old man said. Vampires changed their identity so often that they were never sure what to call each other when they met somewhere new. "Sven and I just got into town last night." He held out his hand and they shook hands.

"Sven, shake hands with Elijah. He's a friend. He won't hurt you," Peter said, turning to the boy, who was taller than he and about Elijah's height. He used hand gestures to indicate what he wanted.

Elijah wondered if the young man was deaf. Holding out his hand, he faced the fellow who was timidly peeking out from inside his hoodie. The dark, mistrusting eyes looked back and Elijah staggered back two steps. He swiftly reached out and pushed back the hood, causing the young fellow to cry out and cringe.

"Oh my God!" Elijah gasped. "Kol!"

_A/N I know this chapter is short. Since I don't know where this story is going, I'm probably going to have short chapters. I hope you will like it._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_A/N Is this really Kol? If so, how did he get there and why is he with Peter?_

The youth hurriedly pulled his hood back over his head and withdrew to a safe place behind Peter. Hunched over in fear, he was barely taller than the old man. One of his hands reached out and grasped a bit of the back of Peter's expensive suit coat.

"You know him?" Peter asked with surprise.

"Yes. He looks like my youngest brother." Elijah tried to think, but his mind was overwhelmed. "Kol?"

The young man didn't answer. He just stared fearfully from inside the hoodie as if Elijah was some dangerous stranger.

"You called him Sven. Who is he?"

"I don't know. He doesn't know. He has no ID. No wallet, no credit cards, no driver's license, no money. I call him Sven because he has a Scandinavian accent." Peter looked from Elijah to the youth and back again.

"I don't sense him being a vampire," Elijah whispered, because he saw a man walking a dog not far away.

"He's not. Is he really a vampire? I mean, is your brother Kol?"

"He was. He died. Really died. Kol – Sven – where were you born?" He reached out toward the young man, but the fellow moved back, keeping Peter between them.

Still, Sven answered barely above a whisper. "I don't understand." He didn't say it in English.

It took Elijah a moment to realize that fact because he understood perfectly. He spoke many languages, and certainly the Scandinavian ones, because he was Viking born. He answered the youth in the same language. "I won't hurt you. I am a friend. Not only that, but if you are who I think you are, you are my youngest brother Kol. Do you understand?"

"Kol?"

"Yes. Can you stand up straight for me like a proud young man and pretend to be glad to see me. That's it. Smile at me like I said something funny." Again Elijah spoke in the boy's language. "Push back your hood. Just for a moment. That's it."

The young man managed to stand up from his cringing, timid stance, push back the hood and give a weak smile.

Elijah's heart skipped a beat. He felt as if he had been kicked in the stomach. If he had been unsure before, he was not now. This was Kol! Just for an instant he saw the look in the dark eyes and the crooked, mischievous smile. The messy dark brown hair was the same and he needed to shave. But the fear the boy exhibited was not Kol's norm.

"You are Kol. I don't understand it, because I thought you died, but I am happy to see you alive. I am your older brother Elijah. We have another brother Niklaus and a sister Rebekah. Do those names remind you of anyone?"

Kol shook his head 'no.'

Peter, on the other hand, did recognize the names. "You are a Mikaelson," he said evenly, even though he was now wary. The Mikaelsons were the notorious Originals among the vampire world. They were considered powerful and dangerous.

"Ah, yes, I am. I didn't tell you that before when we met in Nashville. I know my family does not have a good reputation, I'm afraid. I do beg your pardon."

"I understand, Elijah. I suddenly feel like I am with royalty," Peter admitted with a nervous chuckle. He had spent a few hours chatting with this gentleman once and he had never imagined who he was.

"Certainly not royalty, although my brother Niklaus would disagree. He has a grandiose opinion of himself. And a temper to match. Where are you staying?"

Peter gave the name of the nice hotel where they had a room. "Would you like to go there? We can talk more openly," he said.

"Yes. I have many questions."

The two vampires walked side by side from the area of Jackson Square to where the hotel was, there in the French Quarter. Kol eased along close behind them. He was like a silent shadow. His eyes shifted constantly as if he expected someone to attack at any moment.

As they entered the lobby, the man at the registration desk beckoned to Peter. When he walked over to see what the man wanted, Elijah and Kol followed. Elijah was the curious type and he was concerned about this weak version of Kol being in Peter's care.

"A message for you, Mr. Salvatore," the desk man said, handing Peter an envelope.

"Thank you," Peter said. He took it, but he didn't open it. Instead he headed for the elevators along with his companions.

Although Elijah wanted to ask a new question, he had to refrain because three other people got on the elevator. He watched Kol squeeze into the corner behind Peter. Just who was Peter? The name Salvatore was known to him. It was not an uncommon Italian name, but the Salvatores Elijah knew best were the two brothers in Mystic Falls, Virginia. Was Peter somehow related to them?

Peter led them off the elevator on the fifth floor and took them to his room. He used his card key and unlocked the door. Kol scooted inside quickly and retreated to the first of the two beds. He picked up the television remote and turned the set on, after which he sat on the foot of the bed staring at the action and rocking back and forth.

Peter and Elijah went to the table and chairs close to the window. Elijah glanced out and saw a small view of the river.

"Can I offer you a drink?" Peter asked, knowing there were small bottles of liquor in the mini-refrigerator. He laid his soft hat on the second bed.

"Whatever you have, yes," Elijah said, watching his brother. Maybe this was not Kol. Maybe it was a doppelganger of Kol. That was more logical, but he wanted it to be his brother.

Peter opened the refrigerator and removed bottles for himself and Elijah. He also got out a can of Coca Cola. He pulled the tab to open the can and handed it to Kol. The young man took it, swallowed some and never took his eyes off the picture on the television. The hood slipped off his head and he didn't pull it back up. The volume on the television was a bit loud and a few quick gestures from Peter told Kol to reduce the sound somewhat and he did. Kol had learned to use the remote buttons.

"How long have you and Kol been together?" Elijah asked before pouring his drink into the glass Peter handed him.

"Since yesterday. I stumbled onto him in Memphis on my way down here," Peter said, sitting down opposite his guest. "He seems to attract the attention of thugs wanting to rough him up. After I saved him, he has clung to me like a frightened child. How old is he? He has to be in his early twenties."

"He is. Twenty. There were five of us siblings. I'm the oldest. Then my brother Finn, who is dead now. Then Niklaus. Then Kol and our only sister Rebekah. Kol died last year. In Mystic Falls, Virginia. Do you know the place?"

It was a leading question and Peter knew it. He smiled. "Yes. I know the place. I was born near there."

"So, you are a member of _that_ Salvatore family."

"I am. I take it you know my brothers. I know for a fact Stefan spent months traveling with your brother Klaus," Peter admitted. "They were looking for werewolves."

"Quite true. He found them. Made hybrids. Caused all sorts of problems. Peter, I am very concerned about Kol's safety. New Orleans, especially the French Quarter, is a battle ground right now. There is great hostility and divided loyalties among the many resident vampires. In addition, the witches are angry and the werewolves are stuck in angry canine form. If anyone finds out about Kol and gets hold of him, he can be used as a hostage for leverage against my family."

"I didn't realize there was that big a problem. Someone in Memphis warned me not to come down here, but I have business to attend to."

Kol suddenly laughed at something on the television. The two older men looked at him with concern. Each of them were pleased to hear him laugh. The program on the television was a children's cartoon.

"What was Kol like when he was alive?" Peter asked. He seemed not to care if the young man overheard.

"Does he understand any English?" Elijah asked.

"I'm not sure. He speaks only the language you heard. As you saw, I tend to use gestures to communicate with him."

"He is speaking the language of our childhood, which is why I think he is truly Kol. He was a gentle fun-loving child and young adult, but he changed after a very serious head injury," Elijah said, remembering. "After that, he was _cruelly_ fun-loving. Quite nasty, although he could be charming."

"So he never was like this? Frightened? Timid?"

"No. Bold and brash," Eljah said, shaking his head, but with a small smile.

"But he died. Really died?"

"Yes. Burned up. Klaus witnessed it. I understand he came back briefly from the Other Side, but he then went back. He was still his mean self. This person is as Kol never was." He looked at the young man with worry.

"He bears a family resemblance to you," Peter observed.

"I know."

"Do the others? I've never met them, although I saw Klaus at a distance."

"No. It's likely best you don't meet them, Peter. Especially Niklaus. He's on a rampage these days. Not long ago, he even bit me." Elijah shook his head at the memory. It was unusual for him to tell someone something so personal and only of family business, but Peter was the kind to whom one told things.

"Am I correct that he is a hybrid vampire/werewolf and his bite is deadly to regular vampires?" Peter asked with surprise.

"Yes. I am not exactly a 'regular' vampire. The venom made me very ill, but it didn't kill me. He knew it wouldn't, but it was cruel of him to bite me. He can be like that. Unpredictable."

"So, he lives up to his reputation." Peter thought cruelty ran in the Mikaelson family, and he did not mention that he had heard that Elijah had a dangerous reputation, also.

"I am very concerned about Kol. I don't want him caught up in the situation going on here. Please get him out of town before he is recognized."

He looked at his brother's profile as the young man concentrated on the television. The expression on his boyish face was amusement as he watched the cartoon in English, which he didn't speak. There was no meanness there.

Peter also glanced at Kol. "I can finish my business today and then leave. Tonight, I suppose. My problem is that he won't leave me. He won't stay in this room alone. He's afraid I'll abandon him, I think. Since I don't speak his language, it's hard for me to reassure him."

Elijah frowned slightly. "He might agree to stay with me, but I, too, have things I need to do. The worst thing would be for him to be seen with me."

"I'm sure you're right. I'll have to take him with me and make some logical explanation," Peter said. "Try talking to him. He may impart some information to you that I can't get. Not being able to speak his language is quite inconvenient."

Elijah got up and slowly went to sit on the edge of the second bed. Kol watched him warily.

In the old language of their childhood, Elijah spoke gently to the youth. When he asked for the TV remote, Kol cautiously handed it over and Elijah muted the sound.

"I won't hurt you. You can trust me. Do you understand that?"

Kol looked uncertain.

"You're my brother and I mean you no harm. As I told you before, my name is Elijah. All right?"

Kol nodded. "Elijah."

_A/N I hope you liked this chapter. Elijah and Peter need to decide what to do with the innocent and vulnerable Kol, so stay tuned, as they say._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

_A/N Thanks you all for reading this new story. I hope you like it. In this chapter, Elijah hopes to learn what has happened to Kol by talking to him in their old language, which Peter does not understand._

"Peter tells me he found you in Memphis. Why were you in Memphis?"

"I don't know," Kol said with a shrug.

"Where did you come from?"

"I don't know. I don't remember anything."

"You don't remember your family?"

"No. You said you're my brother."

"I am. I'm Elijah."

"Where are our mother and father?"

"They have both passed on," Elijah said gently. If the young man remembered nothing , there was no use scaring him with certain facts. "You and I have a brother named Niklaus and a sister named Rebekah," he repeated. "Do these names sound at all familiar?"

He had asked these questions before, but he thought perhaps the boy was calm enough now to recall his siblings.

"No. I'm glad you speak my language. No one understands me."

"It is an old dialect. If we were in Norway or Sweden, people would be more likely to figure out what you are saying."

"We grew up in one of those countries?"

"No. We were children in this country."

"How old am I?"

"You are twenty years old."

"I am? Are you sure?"

"Yes. Do you feel older?"

"No. I don't think I'm that old yet."

"It doesn't matter." Elijah glanced at Peter who had raised an eyebrow. They had to treat Kol as a younger boy.

"I can't read. I mean, I can read, but I don't understand the language here."

"It's English. Kol, I understand all this is confusing to you. Peter has brought you to this city because he has business here. But it is a dangerous place. You and Peter must go away. Peter says he can leave tonight."

"I don't like it here. Those two men tired to hurt us."

"I know. I saw it happen. Peter chased them off."

"He is good to me. He protects me," Kol said, nodding. He took a long swallow of his drink, but kept an eye on Elijah.

For a moment there was no fear on the young man's face. There was more a look of curiosity. Elijah longed to reach out and hug his brother, but he didn't. He studied the young face, so familiar. He noted that the youth was wearing tennis shoes, blue jeans and a blue buttoned shirt under the sweatshirt. So much like Kol. Where had the clothes come from? Where had Kol been and who had brought him out of the Other Side?

"Are those the clothes you had on when you woke up in Memphis?"

"No. I didn't have any clothes. I was bare naked! And cold. There was a rope with clothes hanging on it. I stole these. Will I get in trouble?"

"No."

"Peter bought me shoes. He's nice."

"Yes, he is very nice."

There was a sudden hard knocking on the door and all three men were startled. Kol even let out a whimper. Peter gestured to Kol to go into the bathroom and the youth did so quickly, closing the door.

Before Peter could go to the door and ask who was there, a woman's voice demanded, "Elijah! I know you're in there. Open this damned door right now."

"Rebekah?" Elijah asked, surprised and alarmed.

"Yes. It's me and I'm alone. Let me in. I want to see him!"

"Who?" Elijah asked as he and Peter exchanged looks.

"Kol! He was seen with you and that white-haired man. I, too, have spies in this city. Open the door!"

"All right. Keep your voice down."

Peter had moved close to the door and he opened it. He stepped aside as the young blonde woman strode into the room, and then he closed the door and stared at her. She was pretty and obviously upset. Her eyes quickly scanned the room. Peter thought that Klaus was not the only one with a fiery temper. It occurred to him that perhaps Elijah was the most reserved of them all.

"Where is he?"

"Peter, this is my sister Rebekah. Sister dear, this is my friend Peter Salvatore."

"A pleasure, I'm sure," the girl snapped, her eyes running quickly from Peter's white hair to his polished shoes. She then glared at her brother. "Is he in the bathroom?"

"Please lower your voice. Kol is changed. He's easily frightened. You must speak more softly."

Rebekah was silent for a long moment. "Is he ill or injured? Is he terribly burned and deformed?"

"None of those. He seems to be mortal and he has no idea who he is or where he has been or how he got away from the Other Side."

"Mortal?"

"Yes. And you must speak to him in our old native tongue. He doesn't speak any other language."

"What could have happened to him?" Rebekah asked, calming down and now worried about Kol.

"We don't know. If he will come out of the bathroom, you can talk to him, but please be kind. Apparently, he's mentally younger than he appears."

Elijah walked to the closed door. "Kol. It is safe to come out. The visitor is our sister. She was upset with worry about you, but she knows you are safe now. Please open the door."

Peter watched Rebekah as she listened to the old language. When the door opened and she saw Kol, tears spilled from her eyes. Peter felt reassured that she loved him and would protect him.

She didn't rush the young fellow. Instead, she just held out her arms to him, inviting him in for a hug. He was hesitant, but he went to her, only once looking at her face. He stiffly let her put her arms around him.

"Oh, Kol," she whispered in the old tongue. "I can hardly believe it is you. I have missed you so. I thought I would never see you again."

Staring over her shoulder at the wall, he said nothing. He also didn't hug her back. She was a stranger. She was pretty and soft and smelled nice, but she was a stranger. The whole front of her body was against him and she kissed his cheek. His groin area responded. Embarrassed, he pulled from her grasp, turned and hurried back into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

The three people stared at the door for a moment in silence.

"Well, that wouldn't have embarrassed our old Kol," Rebekah said. "He would have just joked about it."

"This boy is very sensitive," Elijah said.

"Is there any chance he might be a doppelganger?" his sister asked. She knew three different doppelgangers and knew how easily they could be mistaken for each other.

"That crossed my mind," Elijah admitted. "But usually, they are born centuries apart, if not more. This boy's language and dialect tell me he is from the time of our childhood."

"We know a witch's spell released Kol from the Other Side briefly six months ago and then he was taken back," Rebekah said. "I saw him for three or four minutes and spoke to him. At first, I was surprised and glad to see him. He looked his usual self, but he was in a nasty temper, bent on revenge, full of insults and violence. I wish I had tried to be nicer to him then, but I wasn't. He made it impossible."

"I didn't know you spoke to him," Elijah said. "I would have liked to have seen him then, regardless of his temper, but I was here. As far as I know, only Elena Gilbert and Stefan Salvatore had further contact with him at that time. At least, that was what I was able to find out."

"Yes. He tried to kill Elena, but Stefan stopped him. But what I am thinking now is that some other spell has pulled him back to the real world again, but now he isn't as he was," the blond girl said.

"Not at all. He is innocent and vulnerable. Peter says he will take Kol away tonight. No one else must find out he was ever here. Your spy, will he keep this secret?"

"I told him not to speak of it to anyone. I trust him about ninety percent. He knew Kol some years ago, which is why he recognized him when he passed him on the street. There was no sign Kol recognized him, though."

"We must hope no one finds out he is here," Elijah said, shaking is head with concern.

"Where did Kol come from this time? How did you find him?" Rebekah asked of Elijah, who then had Peter tell of the meeting. The three of them sat, sipped drinks and talked.

Kol finally emerged when he realized the young woman was not leaving. He silently sat on the first bed and watched the muted television. He had taken his cola into the bathroom and he had it now, taking sips now and then.

"I feel that I should inform Niklaus," Elijah admitted, "but I will not. There is no telling what he would decide to do."

"Nik is dangerous," Rebekah said, nodding. "He mustn't find out. At least, not while Kol is here. Perhaps later one of us can tell him."

Peter spoke up then. "I wonder if it is possible Kol was seen in Mystic Falls. After all, that was the last place he had appeared."

"As far as we know," Elijah agreed.

"You know Mystic Falls?" Rebekah asked of the white-haired man. She didn't recall the fact that his last name was Salvatore. She hadn't been paying attention when Elijah had introduced him.

"Yes. I've been there. My brothers are there. Damon and Stefan."

Rebekah stared at him in surprise. "Your brothers? You are much older."

"Yes and no. They were turned younger, while I was eighty when I was turned. They are actually my older brothers."

"Well, you could have fooled me," Rebekah said.

Elijah's phone buzzed and he took it from his pocket. Looking at it, he frowned and then took the call. "Niklaus, I …"

"Where are you?" came the other brother's voice loud enough that the three people could hear it.

"No need to shout," Elijah said calmly, even though he didn't feel calm. "What do you want?"

"I just heard a rumor."

"I'm sure the area is awash with rumors. What now?"

"It is said that **Kol** has been seen in the Quarter!"

Elijah closed his eyes and thought _Damn._ "Kol? Why would you believe a rumor like that?"

"You know they said he came back from the Other Side in Mystic Falls?"

"Of course I know that. He also was put back on the Other Side. You think he is out again?"

Elijah knew he was playing a dangerous game by evading the issue.

"That's the rumor. If it's true, I want to see him. Where is he, Elijah? I want to talk to him! I want to know what he is up to and whose side he's on."

"If he is indeed in town and if he has just arrived, he may not be on anyone's side, Niklaus. Don't jump to conclusions," Elijah said, trying to be patient. Then he heard Kol say something just above a whisper to Rebekah.

"Is Niklaus a danger to me?" the young man asked in the old tongue.

There was silence on the phone. Elijah gritted his teeth. He was sure the other brother had heard those words. He frowned at Kol and put a finger to his lips to silence him. It was too late.

_A/N Can Elijah keep Kol out of the danger and intrigue of the French Quarter? We shall see._


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

_A/N Well, here's another chapter. So much has been written in the fan fic stories, I hope this one is a little different. Thanks for reading, guys. To continue, Elijah is on the phone to Klaus, who he hopes to keep from Kol._

"Elijah," came Klaus' voice, low and soft, and deadly.

"Yes?"

"I heard his voice. You know I did. What game are you playing now, brother?"

"Not what you might think."

"Kol is there, isn't he? Do not lie to me, Elijah. I will not stand for it."

"Did you understand the words spoken?"

"Of course. Did he think I would not?"

"It is the only language he now speaks," Elijah said, giving up the pretense. He saw Rebekah stand up and indicate silently that she was leaving. He nodded. Peter showed her to the door in silence.

"And by that you mean what?" came Klaus' voice.

"I mean, he is not the Kol we know. He is a frightened amnesiac. He has no memory of who he is or who we are. I've been talking to him in the old tongue. Niklaus, we must not let our enemies know he is here. He must not become a helpless pawn in our troubles."

"I can protect him. He can go to the mansion."

"There is no place safe for him anywhere around here and you know it. I have a friend who will take him away from here."

"No. He is family. He stays with us. I let him down once; I will not do it again. Is he burned?"

"No. He's physically fine. Just not mentally. Niklaus, he must leave. He must be away from us and this dangerous city."

"Let me speak to him. Put him on the phone."

Elijah knew he could refuse, but perhaps the older brother would back off if he spoke to Kol.

"Kol, I want you to speak to our brother Niklaus."

Kol shook his head, and showed more fear.

Elijah looked to Peter for help. "Indicate to him that you think it is alright for him to speak to Niklaus."

"Who the hell are you talking with?" Klaus demanded

"Speak calmly," Elijah said into the phone. "Harsh words frighten him. Kol, I mean. Be patient."

"I will come to you. Where are you?"

"Niklaus, don't push it," Elijah admonished. After all, he was the oldest brother.

"Excuse me? I will go wherever I please!"

"You will be patient and speak calmly. I believe Kol will speak to you."

"Fine. I'm calm. I'm not patient."

_You never are_, Elijah thought. He watched a cautious Kol come to him. "Hold this thing like this, Kol. You will hear his voice and he will hear yours when you speak."

Kol took the phone and held it wrongly against his ear. Peter turned it around for him.

"Say 'I am here," Elijah encouraged in their old language.

In a small voice, Kol did as he was told. He jumped when Klaus spoke and he held the phone away from his head.

"Speak softly, Klaus," Elijah said in English. To Kol, he said, "It's alright. Listen to him."

In the old language, Klaus patiently asked, "Are you all right?"

Kol nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Can you hear me?" Klaus asked.

Kol nodded again.

"Kol, you have to say 'yes' or 'no' so he can hear you. He can't see you nodding your head," Elijah said.

"Can you hear me, Kol?" Klaus asked again, his voice gentle.

"Yes."

"Are you all right?"

"Yes."

"Do you know who I am?"

"Yes."

"Who am I?"

"Niklaus, my brother?"

"That's right. We are your family."

"I like Rebekah."

There was silence in the room and on the phone for a moment. Elijah and Peter cringed.

"Did you meet Rebekah?" Klaus asked, his voice still gentle.

"Yes."

"When?"

"A bit ago."

"Where?"

"Here."

"Where are you?"

"In the hotel."

Elijah snatched the phone away from Kol, who looked surprised and fearful, thinking he had done something bad.

"Stop it, Niklaus! You wanted to talk to him. You have now talked to him. He is going to leave town."

"Don't you dare send him away before I see him. Where is he?"

"You heard him. He is **not** the Kol we knew anymore. He's timid and easily frightened. You are watched all the time. If you come to meet him, he will be revealed."

"Use your phone to take a picture of him. Show him to me."

"Alright," Elijah agreed. To Kol, he said, "Sit over there on the bed and hold still. I am going to shine a bright little light on you just for a moment."

In a second he took the picture. The flash startled Kol, but the picture turned out fine. Elijah shared it with Klaus.

"He looks to be alright," Klaus said. "I want to tell him I'm sorry I couldn't save him from the Gilberts."

"Don't say anything about that. He has no memory of it. There's no sense upsetting him. All he knows is that we thought he had died at some time. He's quite fragile, brother. Please, be satisfied that he is alive. Let it go at that."

Klaus was silent for a long moment. "Alright, Elijah. I don't like it, but I will stay away from him. For now."

The brothers ended the call. Elijah and Peter sighed with relief.

"You did a good job," Elijah told Kol with a smile. "Niklaus is pleased you are alright."

A small smile touched the young man's lips, but he looked uncertain.

"I wish you could stay with us. It's good you can talk with him," Peter said.

"I'm afraid I can't. I have business to attend to. What are you going to do with Kol while you attend to your own business?"

"I would like him to stay here alone, but I don't think he will. He doesn't even like it when I go into the bathroom and shut the door. In fact, I had to show him what the toilet is for and the faucets. I got him to take a shower."

"He is like a young child from a remote area. Well, I think he has some skills from our early days, but we didn't have bathroom facilities like modern ones. We lived somewhat primitively a thousand years ago."

"I was a child in Richmond, Virginia around the time of the Civil War, but our circumstances were certainly not primitive," Peter said. "I think I told you that back when we chatted in Nashville that time."

"Yes, I recall it. You called yourself Theo Andreopoulos. I had no idea you were related to Damon and Stefan."

"It's a small world, isn't it?"

"Yes. I must go now. I'll sneak out the back entrance to the hotel. Hopefully, Niklaus' informants won't be watching there. Or Rebekah's. There is too much intrigue going on in the Quarter right now. Do take care, Peter."

"I'll do my best. Wait a minute. Tell Kol that I am going to get another room and I want him to stay alone in that room and wait for me to come back."

"I see. No one will know exactly where he is. I'll stay here while you go down and get another room. I'll explain it to him," Elijah said.

Kol was ready to follow Peter out the door, but Elijah spoke to him and he stopped. Kol didn't like what the older brother told him. It was obvious that he didn't agree with the plan.

"What if Peter doesn't come back for me?"

"He will. If night time comes and he has not come back, I will come for you. Is that alright?"

"I don't know. I don't want to be alone."

"You can watch the television or sleep or eat. Peter can bring you some food and colas. How does that sound?"

"I don't want to be alone."

"You're a big boy, Kol. You can do it. I know you can. I am your older brother and I know these things."

"Why am I bigger than Peter?"

"What?"

"I'm taller than Peter. He's older than me. He should be taller."

"Old men are sometimes short. I think Peter was always short. You are taller because you are a tall young man. You aren't a little boy, Kol. I think you feel like you are, but you are a young man."

"I don't remember growing up."

"I know. You grew up to be as tall as I am."

"I like you, Elijah."

"I like you, too," Elijah said with a smile. He especially liked the open look on his youngest brother's face. There was no slyness or cruelty there.

_A/N Hope you liked this chapter. I'm working on the next one. Please tell me if you think this story is going along okay._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

On impulse, Elijah asked his youngest brother, "Can I hug you?" He was normally quite reserved and not the huggy-kissy type. His physical contact with others was often through violence when feeding or killing, although he could be quite gentle in intimate situations. Or not.

"I guess so. Can I hug you back?" Kol asked shyly.

"Yes, you can," Elijah said with a grin. He was pleased Kol was going to allow a hug. He was more than pleased that the young man wanted to give him a hug, too.

He put his arms around the young man, feeling that he was thin under his clothes. But more importantly, he was alive with a beating heart inside his chest. He had body heat, which Kol the vampire had not had. How had Kol come alive again and as a human?

After the hug, Kol grinned shyly again. He touched the front of his pants. "I'm glad my thing didn't stand up when I hugged you. I think I better not hug Rebekah again."

Elijah had to laugh at that. "Maybe not for a while."

"Do you think she's mad at me?"

"No. She loves you."

"She's pretty."

"Yes, she is." They talked for a few minutes about Rebekah. Kol seemed quite relaxed and obviously enjoyed being able to talk freely with someone he trusted. Elijah noticed, however, that the young man's point of view and manner of speech were that of a younger boy, perhaps ten or eleven, and an insecure one at that. That was worrisome.

"Here's Peter back," Elijah said as the door opened, and he saw that Kol became shy and quiet again.

"I got a room just down the hall. It's in the name of Andreopoulos. Let me gather my things and we can move to the other room. Were you able to convince Kol to stay in the room without me?"

"I think so."

In a few minutes the three of them moved from one room to the other without anyone seeing them. The two rooms were identical except the window didn't look toward the river. Kol found the TV remote right away and turned the unit on. He again settled on the end of the first bed.

"Kol, you are safe here," Elijah told him. "I have to leave now, but I will see you some time. Peter has to go do some things, so you wait right here for him to come back. Do you understand?" He didn't like that he had to repeat things to his brother, but he feared Kol might not follow directions. He knew he was treating the young man as if he were a child or of limited intelligence, but he felt better doing it.

Kol nodded and continued to watch the television. He didn't even look away when Elijah walked out the door, closing it behind him after a nod to Peter.

Elijah now had Peter's cell phone number and could call him if he wished. He hoped the two could get out of town safely later in the day. Out in the street, he walked back toward the old house he shared with Klaus, when they were on speaking terms, that is. He also often stayed at the mansion some distance away. His third retreat was to get his own hotel room temporarily, where he could stay when he wanted a respite from the mayhem.

Using his cell phone, he now called his sister.

"You didn't tell Niklaus about Kol, did you?"

"No. Of course not. He hasn't found out, has he?"

"Yes, he has. I tell you, sister, I don't like that one can hardly move about in this city without someone watching and reporting. He called me insisting he talk to Kol and I let him. He also wanted to see Kol. I put him off and Kol will be moved." He didn't mention that the move had already been made.

"To where?"

"I'm not going to say. It's not that I don't trust you, but …"

"But you don't. That's alright. I've seen him and talked to him and I know he's alive. That's what's important."

"It is. I don't understand how it happened, but he is alive. By the way, I believe he has regressed to about the age of ten or eleven."

"How could that be? What could have happened to him?" Rebekah said with sadness.

"I don't know. I wish I did."

Like Rebekah, Elijah suspected that one of the powerful spells a witch had cast might have had something to do with releasing Kol from the Other Side, and yet he also suspected that the veil to the Other Side only opened in small rents. When it had been opened in Mystic Falls, it had not opened everywhere. If this supposition was correct, wouldn't that mean Kol had come back in Mystic Falls, Virginia? Someone there had opened it again? If so, how had he arrived in Memphis, Tennessee? And why was he a mortal? And why was he like a much younger boy?

These same questions were raised by Klaus when Elijah finally met up with him and explained the situation. Like Elijah, Klaus was happy Kol was back, and he was also disturbed by how Kol was now and that Elijah would not let them meet.

A half hour later, Rebekah phoned Elijah and asked where Kol was. She admitted that she had gone by the hotel and found that the occupants of the room had already left.

"I told you he would be moved and that Peter was taking Kol away," Elijah reminded her.

"I wanted to see him again. Who knows when we will see him again?" She sounded sad.

"I don't know myself."

Two more hours later, Peter phoned Elijah.

"Do you know where Kol is?" he asked in a worried tone.

"No! He isn't in the hotel room?"

"No. I asked the front desk and they haven't seen him."

"Do you think he walked out on his own?"

"He must have. Elijah, the alternative is that someone took him! Could Klaus have found him?"

"I don't think so, but it is possible. I hate to ask him. If he didn't, he will be furious. I am sure he will blame me."

"Kol finished the colas I had put in the room for him. Then he got into the little bottles of liquor. I should have removed them."

"Are you thinking he became drunk and wandered out of the room?"

"Maybe. I'm going to walk around the Quarter and see if I spot him. He took the hoodie with him, so that might help me spot him."

"Damn. I really thought I had persuaded him to stay put," Elijah said, pressing his hand to his forehead. "I have to tell Niklaus. He can mobilize some people and a few day-walkers to help look."

"We probably should check with the police and the hospitals. After all, Kol is human."

"Wait on that. Let's look first."

Elijah sought out Klaus. He hated to admit that Kol was missing. He hated to admit that a situation he thought was under control, was not. He should have known better. These days, it seemed that nothing he planned went right. Klaus, Marcel or one of the witches screwed things up.

Deciding to use the phone before actually facing his brother, Elijah made the call, asking, "It disturbs me to ask this, but do you have Kol?"

There was silence on the phone before Klaus snarled, "Are you telling me you **lost **him?"

"He may have wandered off. Or not. Which is why I am checking with you."

"Damn it, Elijah! No, I don't have him. He could be anywhere in this city if he is just wandering about," Klaus shouted.

"Niklaus, get some people to look for him. He's wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and jeans. He tends to stoop rather than stand up straight. He acts shy and furtive."

"May I assume he does not have a phone," Klaus snapped.

"That's correct. He has learned to used a television remote control, but not a phone."

"What happened to the man who was guarding him?"

"He had to leave him to attend to some business. Apparently, when he returned to the hotel, Kol was gone. We had some doubts Kol would stay in the room, but neither of us could stay and guard him."

"You should have brought him to me! What is wrong with your thinking, brother? Do you distrust me so? Don't answered that. I know you don't trust me any more than I trust you. Hiding Kol from me proves that point."

"It is unfortunate that you are correct," Elijah agreed. Under layers of conflicting emotions, he loved this brother, but it was difficult. Family, what remained if it, was important to him.

"The other man, the one who had Kol, who is he?"

"It doesn't matter. He is a day-walking vampire and a good man. I met him about a year ago. He would not hurt Kol, nor would he use him against us."

"So you hope! Why are you hiding his identity from me? Who is he?"

"You don't know him. He told me he had never met you, but he knew you by reputation. He did not want to meet you."

"I am most displeased with this situation, Elijah. Go look for our brother. I will mobilized a search also." Klaus ended the call abruptly.

After a couple of minutes' thought, Elijah phoned Rebekah. Her phone was busy, so he left a message asking her to call him back. It was ten minutes before she did.

"Have you lost Kol?" she accused. "Where is he?"

"Niklaus just called you?"

"Yes. He wanted to know if I had him. Where is he? Tell me Kol is still safe," she repeated.

"Unfortunately, I cannot."

"Oh, Elijah. You assured me he would be safe with that man. You should have guarded him better. Who is that fellow anyway? Why would you trust him to look out for Kol?"

"I do trust Peter. He has no reason to harm our brother. He is a kind and gentle person."

"He's a vampire! Kind and gentle are not the proper adjectives even if he is an old man."

"That is not the point. The point is that Kol has wandered off. He is not mentally or emotionally prepared to deal with this city. He has no money, no phone and no identification."

"Nick said he will check with the police and the hospitals, just in case," Rebekah said.

"I have an idea I am going to check out," Elijah said. "I'll get back to you."

_A/N So, where is he? Safe or in trouble? Hope you like my story. I'm trying to make it different from other Kol stories._


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

_A/N So, we have a little mystery. Did Kol wander off or did someone take him? I'm trying to make the story interesting, so I hope you all like it. Thanks to you guys who are reading and who commented._

What Elijah did was contact one of the powerful witches he thought would help. There was danger in doing this, but he did it. He phoned Peter and told him the plan. In a short while, he and the witch Melinda met with Peter in the second hotel room.

"You have nothing belonging to this boy?" she asked.

"All we have are these cans and bottles he handled, this remote control and this bed he lay on," Peter told her.

"And you expect me to do a location spell from just that?"

"Please try, Melinda," Elijah encouraged. He and Peter then watched patiently as the woman set up the items she needed and began to softly chant. They didn't really expect her to locate Kol with so little to go on, but it was worth a try.

After a while she said, "He is on the water."

"What water?" Elijah asked. "The river? Lake Pontchartrain? The Gulf of Mexico?"

"The river. The ferry."

"He is alone? Can you tell?" Peter asked.

"He is alone. He is just standing looking out at the water."

The men watched the woman who looked glassy-eyed, for she was seeing something in her head.

"Surely he is not contemplating jumping into the river," Elijah reasoned, a bit alarmed.

"He is calm. He likes the river," the woman murmured.

Ten minutes later Peter and Elijah were at the Canal Street ferry terminal waiting to see if Kol got off the boat when it pulled up to the city side from Algiers. The boat docked and unloaded cars and people, but not Kol. The men were able to find out that Kol was not on the boat.

"There is another ferry boat that goes farther up the river to Gretna," Elijah said. "Perhaps he is on that one."

"Does it come to this landing?"

"Yes." He went to ask about the arrival time of the other ferry. "We will have to wait."

"You wait for him. I'll drive over to the other side on the bridge and see if he has disembarked over there," Peter said.

After a while, Elijah phoned Peter. "He didn't get off the boat. Any information over there?"

"I asked some questions. A young man with a hoodie was seen on the ferry and getting off it. No one knows where he went. I'm walking around over here looking and asking questions."

"Be careful, Peter."

Elijah's phone rang almost as soon has his call to Peter ended. He saw that it was Klaus. He didn't want to report that he had not quite found Kol yet. "I've received two reports," Klaus told him. "Both of young fellows meeting Kol's description. One is at Audubon Park and one is at City Park near the carousel."

"Either one could be Kol," Elijah said. "He didn't have any money, but he may have stolen some to get around. I'll go out to Audubon if you'll take the other one."

"Fine. I am most displeased with this," Klaus growled. "Furious, to be more exact."

"I know."

Elijah drove his car past Canal Street, past the downtown area and out past the Garden District. Eventually, he came to Audubon Park with its huge, old oaks and its zoo. The place covered quite a bit of land, going back to the levee beside the river, and Elijah didn't know where to look. He didn't even know for certain that Kol was here and not across the river in Gretna.

As he walked around and talked to people, he even showed the picture of Kol on his phone to some people. No one said they had seen him until he stood outside the entrance/exit to the zoo. A man accompanied by a woman and four children said they had seen and spoken to the missing young fellow walking around in the zoo. He had been laughing at a flock of flamingos marching back and forth.

Elijah wondered what general knowledge Kol had, even though he had amnesia that covered a thousand years. Did Kol know what a flamingo was or an elephant? Perhaps Kol still had a lot of general knowledge, even though Peter had had to explain the use of the toilet.

The older brother hesitated to go into the zoo. He could be wandering around in there for two hours while Kol walked out and left. He decided to phone Peter again. The latter reported that he had just talked to a man who had seen Kol get on a private boat that took him across the river. Money had been exchanged. Where had Kol come by money?

"When?"

"Some time ago. The man said the boat stopped at the old ferry wharf on Jackson Street. I don't know where that is. Do you?"

"Yes, but I am at Audubon Park and a family saw someone who meets his description in the zoo. If it was Kol who crossed the river, he had time to get to the park. At least I think so. Klaus said he was seen at City Park, too. He can't have been at both in this time frame."

"Damn. Where is he? Maybe we're on a 'wild goose chase' and he's back at the hotel by now," Peter said with a sigh of frustration. "I'm going to return to the city and check the hotel. It's getting late. I hope we find him before evening comes."

"I also. I'm going to wait here by the zoo entrance and hope to catch him coming out. Let me know what you find."

It was Elijah who found Kol. The young man came from the zoo, a container of soft drink in his hand. He spotted Elijah right away and came straight to him.

"Are you alright, Kol?"

"Yes. I saw all kinds of animals from around the world!" the youth said with an enthusiasm he had not shown earlier.

"Kol, Peter and I have been very worried about you. Why did you leave the hotel room?"

"You're mad at me," Kol said, hanging his head. "I'm sorry."

"No. I'm not mad at you. I was just very worried."

"I rode across the river. Twice! It was great! And I saw the sign for the zoo and came here."

Elijah had to assume that Kol had seen a picture advertising the zoo.

"Where did you get the money to do these things? Did you rob someone?"

"No! I found this," Kol said and he took a leather wallet from one of his jeans pockets.

"You found it?"

"On the ground. Someone lost it. I saw the money. Peter has money like this."

He showed Elijah the money which seemed to amount to over one hundred dollars in twenties and lesser bills. There was no telling how much Kol had handed over to people for transportation and tickets.

"We need to return this wallet. We'll find a policeman." There were credit cards, a driver's license and other things in the wallet. Some man was very upset to have lost it all. When he spotted a security guard, Elijah handed over the wallet, saying he had found it on the ground. He said there was quite a bit of money in it, but of course, he didn't say Kol had spent any of it. Kol, who had been told to keep his mouth shut, said nothing.

As Elijah led the way to his car, he phoned Peter and told him Kol was found and they would go to the hotel. He then phoned Klaus, although he would rather have not.

"He was at the zoo," Elijah told him.

"Put him on the phone," Klaus growled.

"Do not yell at him. He is quite pleased with himself."

Kol took the phone and held it properly. "I am here," he said.

"I am glad Elijah found you," Klaus said, trying to keep a calm voice. "Why did you leave the hotel? We were so worried."

"I was tired of waiting in that room. I walked around and found money and found the ferry boat. I love the feel of the boat on the water. It feels right to be on a boat."

"That is your Viking heritage. It is still in your blood," Klaus said.

Elijah overheard this and had to grin. He took some money from his pocket, showed it to Kol and slipped it into the boy's jeans pocket.

"And I saw lots of animals in the zoo!"

"How fun," Klaus said, but he was not happy.

Elijah took back the phone and ended the call before Klaus could return to a caustic voice. As they reached the parking lot, there was a rowdy group of men there, and Kol returned to his timid frame of mind. He stayed close to his brother, almost touching him. They had to walk right by the men who were near Elijah's car.

Just as Elijah sensed one of them as being a day-walking vampire, the group turned on him, punching and kicking him and hitting his head with something hard. Elijah was momentarily stunned and fell to his knees, but he then sprang up, ready to tear some of these men apart, even though assorted humans were in the parking lot.

It was too late. He caught one man and attacked, but two others had snatched Kol and forced him away and into a passenger van. The others scattered, leaving Elijah with one man, who now had a broken arm and a damaged knee.

"Who sent you? Niklaus?" he demanded. "Tell me or you will die right here." He knew there were a few people around who were watching the commotion. He held the man up by his shirt front. "I will rip your heart out!"

The fellow was not a vampire. He was young and in pain and now was very fearful. "I don't know! The guy in the red shirt was buying beers all around and he hired us to help him get the kid away from you. He said you were a pervert. A pedophile."

"How did he know where I was?"

"I don't know. Honest. I need a doctor. Help!" he yelled toward some watching people, a man and his family.

Elijah let him fall to the ground and got into his car and drove away before anyone could come to help the injured fellow. The last thing he wanted was to have to give some explanation to the police. With a hand shaking with fury and with fear for Kol, he phoned Klaus as he drove toward town and told him what had happened in very few words.

"Tell me they have taken him to you, Niklaus!" he demanded.

"I didn't send anyone like that!" the blond brother said after a string of profanities. "This is your fault! How could you be so incompetent?" He added a few more unflattering adjectives.

"I am already disgusted with myself for allowing a group of humans to take him when I should have overcome them. You don't have to insult me further." He touched his scalp where there was a lump from the blow.

"You deserve it. Come to the house. Now!"

Elijah planned to go to the house in the Quarter anyway and said he would be there in a short while. He didn't like Klaus issuing orders to him. It made him even more angry than he was already. Rush hour traffic was going to make his trip slower and more frustrating. While stopped at a traffic light, he phoned Peter.

"I lost him. Or more precisely, he was snatched away from me. Kidnapped."

"Oh, no! Do you think Klaus is behind it?"

"No. Marcel, perhaps. Witches, perhaps. Not Rebekah. I just don't know. I'm going to meet with Klaus now."

"Have you told him?"

"I have and he has duly berated me. No surprise there."

"Damn. Poor Kol. He's probably scared to death. I wonder, where is he now?"

_A/N Gone again. They all seem to have a hard time keeping track of him. Working on the next chapter._


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"I wish I knew," Elijah muttered as he talked to Peter on the phone. "I am most concerned that his kidnappers will think he is still a vampire and seriously injure him, thinking he will heal quickly. I know one of the kidnappers was a day-walker. I don't know his name. I'm hoping Klaus or Marcel will know."

"This Marcel might have Kol? Surely he would sense the boy is human."

"I sincerely hope so, whoever has him. Do you want to meet with me and Klaus?"

"With Klaus? I'm hesitant to do so, Elijah. Curious, but hesitant."

"Be adventuresome, my friend," Elijah said with a hint of humor, despite the situation.

"Oh, alright," Peter said. "I have no idea how he feels about the Salvatores, so perhaps you can introduce me as Peter, but leave off my last name."

"Alright. Niklaus can be very belligerent. Don't argue with him, Peter. Don't be confrontational. It just inflames him more."

"I understand. I'll see you in a little while," Peter said, and he repeated the address Elijah gave him.

Elijah parked in the nearest multistory parking garage and walked to the house. It was one of those that was wall to wall with its neighbors, the windows and doors facing inward toward the courtyard. The end of the house faced the street. This was common in the crowded French Quarter.

In the courtyard he found Klaus on his phone, pacing as he talked. He still sounded agitated. When the blond brother saw Elijah he beckoned him over to one of the two tables with chairs. Elijah took a seat while Klaus continued to pace and growl into the phone.

"Have you tracked him down?" the older brother asked when Klaus put his phone in his pocket.

"No. Marcel is checking the day-walkers. He knows them better than I do."

Klaus took a seat opposite Elijah and they stared at each other. Then Klaus cocked his head to the side and grinned. Elijah knew it was not out of joy or brotherly love.

"I hope you are proud of yourself. If you had had your way, you would not have bothered to tell me he was alive and here, would you?"

"No. Maybe after he had left town. This place is a battleground and he's in no way able to deal with it. The old Kol would have reveled in it, but not this timid, new version. He is like a young boy, Niklaus."

"What do you think has happened to him? I mean, why is he like this?"

"I don't know. My guess is there is a magic spell involved," Elijah said evenly.

"But why? By whom?"

"Again, I do not know."

"And you're sure he's not a doppelganger?"

"You talked to him. What was your impression?"

"He's Kol."

"I agree. But now where is he? Why would someone kidnap him? The one man I talked to said he was told I was some sort of pervert holding Kol in some way. Who told him that?" Elijah said, frowning.

Klaus shook his head, his dark green-blue eyes blazing. He was facing the door to the passageway that led from the sidewalk into the courtyard. It stood open and he saw a white-haired man with a cane walk in.

"Is that your friend?" he asked.

Elijah turned, smiled and stood up. He beckoned to Peter, who came slowly and with dignity to stand by his friend. Klaus also stood, eyeing the man critically. Elijah made the introductions. Peter offered his hand.

Klaus elected not to shake hands. To him, this was the man who had helped hide Kol from him. "Who are you, other than 'Peter'? Why was Kol with you anyway?"

"I helped him in Memphis and he attached himself to me. I don't speak his language, so I knew nothing about him until Elijah recognized him here in town," Peter calmly explained, although he knew Elijah had already told Klaus the same thing earlier. He was reluctant to tell Klaus who his brothers were. Apparently Elijah had not already explained that relationship to Klaus.

The blond vampire studied the old man for a long moment. "Not many vampires are turned as old men. How did this happen to you?" Klaus rudely asked with a suspicious tone.

"I was born in the 1850's and lived to be eighty. At that time, my mind was sharp, but my body was failing. I knew a vampire and asked him to turn me. He did. I was a businessman before and I still am. Finance and investments."

Elijah indicated they sit down and all three did so.

Klaus had not given up trying to get information from Peter. "I see. Let me see a business card. Surely you carry business cards."

"Of course." Peter reached into a pocket in his suit. He had more than one set of business cards because he used more than one name. He handed over one with his present name on it.

"Peter Salvatore. I believe I detected a faint accent. Where are you from?"

"Here and there. Just like you. I believe we are here to discuss your missing brother, not my history," Peter said evenly.

Klaus eyed him coldly, while Elijah gritted his teeth and hoped Peter would not be quietly defiant before Klaus. The blond brother recognized that there might be a relationship between Peter and the Salvatore brothers, but he didn't press the point.

"You are quite correct," Klaus said. "I'm not satisfied that you are what you say you are. However, I will let that go for now." He smiled a sly smile.

"I am no one of importance anyway. By the way, has anyone told Kol about vampires?"

"I didn't," Elijah said. "Did you, Niklaus?"

"I don't recall it coming up in the short conversation I had with him on the phone," Klaus said. He looked at Peter again. "Where do you think Kol is?"

"In the hands of those who attacked Elijah and took the young man. Why did they take him? I don't know. Where are they holding him? I don't know. I'm being quite honest here."

"In other words, you are of no help to us," Klaus said, looking down his nose.

"Most likely not. But I do care about Kol. He's frightened. Very insecure. I want him to be safe."

"As do we," Elijah said.

"I don't wish to be rude," Klaus said, not meaning it, "but if you have nothing to contribute, perhaps you should get on about your business."

Elijah gave him a stony look, disturbed by his brother's rudeness. He stood when Peter did. The old man did not offer to shake hands, but nodded at Klaus and turned toward the entrance. Elijah walked with him through the passageway to the street.

"I apologize for my brother's lack of tact. He can be rudely blunt."

"He says what's on his mind," Peter said, hiding his distaste for the man.

"Not necessarily, unfortunately. It is not that simple. One is never sure what he is thinking," Elijah said with a sigh. "I will keep you posted. Please let me know if you hear anything."

"I will," Peter said and he left.

Elijah returned to sit down again with Klaus. He didn't reproach his brother. It would do no good.

"Why did he come here?" Klaus asked.

"I invited him. I said he should meet the notorious Niklaus. Besides, I knew you wondered about the man with whom Kol was traveling."

"And I still do not know just who he is."

They talked for a minute about the situation. Their conversation was interrupted when a small, but heavy, object was thrown from the door into the courtyard. It thumped onto the paving stones. Elijah moved in a blur to the doorway and looked around, but there were a lot of people on the sidewalk at this hour and none of them looked as if they had thrown an object or seen anyone do it.

When Elijah returned to the courtyard, Klaus was unwrapping a piece of paper tied to a brick. He read it aloud.

" '_You will pay for what you did, Andre. We have the boy. He too will pay unless Simon is set free_.' What the hell!" Klaus exclaimed. "Who is this damned Andre? Or Simon?" He handed the paper to Elijah.

"I have no idea. Is it possible there has been a mistake, and we and Kol are not the right targets? Could Andre be Andre Marcotte?" Elijah wondered aloud as he studied the torn piece of paper. It was a ruled sheet of school paper and the message was written in ballpoint pen ink. It was also in messy cursive.

"How the hell would I know? The only Simon I know around here is Big Jim Simon," Klaus growled.

"The werewolf?"

"Or Eddie Simon, that weasel of a gambler." Klaus added, taking the paper back.

"The note indicates that the sender thinks Andre is here. Why would he think that? No one close to us is Andre."

"Well, we had better find out. Kol is obviously in danger," Klaus said, heading for the door to one of the ground floor rooms of the house.

Elijah remained where he was. The courtyard was cooling down because the late sun no longer shined down into it, although it was still shining on the third floor of the house. Elijah idly traced his fingers along the fine pattern of the cast iron top of the patio table. What was going on with the kidnapping of Kol and the note?

Someone besides the usual spies was watching his, Elijah's, movements about town. Some one knew he had been with Kol and Peter at the hotel. Someone had followed him to the zoo. Did someone really think he was a pervert with a thing for young men or had that idea been put forth just to hire men who would try to help free Kol? Did the man behind all this know that he and Niklaus and Kol were brothers?

If the kidnappers had wanted to free Kol, they would not have actually kidnapped him. And they certainly would not have sent a threatening note. Kol had been purposely snatched away and was being held prisoner. He must be very frightened. He couldn't even communicate properly with his abductors.

As far as Elijah could tell, those holding Kol had neither Niklaus' nor his phone numbers, while there had been no phone number on the note. There was no way to communicate. If he or Niklaus knew who either Andre or Simon was, they would likely know who was behind all this, but they didn't. It was most worrisome.

_A/N I hope you all liked this chapter. The mystery deepens._


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Elijah was about to go find his blond brother when Rebekah came into the courtyard. She looked very concerned and Elijah had to assume she had heard the news.

"Tell me you know where he is," she demanded.

"If you mean Kol, I do not. Nor does Niklaus."

"Elijah! You and Peter were supposed to be keeping him safe. Now he is who-knows-where!"

"And just who told you this?"

"The word is out on the street! Rumors are going around. People are looking for our brother and some of them do not have good intentions, I'm sure. What are you and Nik doing about it?"

Elijah told her about the piece of paper. "This was delivered a few minutes ago. Do the names Andre or Simon mean anything to you?"

"There's Andre Marcotte. I know Simon Jones." The blonde young woman shook her head. "This means nothing to me except that Kol is in great danger if you and Nik can't do anything about this Simon."

"We don't know him, either. Or Andre. Niklaus is making calls inside. Perhaps Marcel or a witch knows something helpful."

Rebekah shook her head again in frustration and headed for the office door which stood open. Elijah followed her. They found their brother at his desk on the computer .

"It's not Andre Marcotte," Klaus said to them. "He's in prison in Arkansas. There are too many Simons to narrow it down."

"What I don't understand is why the message is to 'Andre.' None of us has used that name as an alias," Elijah said. "I'm thinking it is a mistake. A case of mistaken identity."

"That doesn't help us find Kol," Rebekah said.

Klaus turned back to his computer, while Elijah walked out to the courtyard again. In fact, he went out to the street.

"Hey, old man, I got something for you," a youth said, coming to stand in front of him.

Elijah stopped and glowered at the fellow and his companion. He was not used to being called an 'old man.' Then again, the speaker looked to be about sixteen, and Elijah knew that to a teenager, anyone over thirty was 'old.' Since, theoretically, he was thirty four, going on thirty five, he guessed that he qualified.

"What are you speaking of?" he asked.

"Got a note for you, mister. You in your fancy suit," the boy said with a smirk. His eyes roved over Elijah's expensive suit, which actually had a dirty spot on one elbow from his being knocked down at the park. The boy held out the note.

When Elijah read the words, he knew it was from the same source as the other one. He grabbed the boy's shirt front. "Who gave this to you?"

The boy swore at him and the other boy moved forward uncertainly. "Let go!" the first one said, trying to release Elijah's hand.

"Who gave you this paper?"

"Some dude. He paid me to give it to the old guy from that house. Let go!"

"What did he look like? The man who paid you?"

"I don't know. Old dude like you. Even older, I guess. Wearing a cowboy hat."

"Are you going to see him again?" Elijah asked, eyeing the people within view to see if he spotted a cowboy hat. He didn't.

"I don't think so. It ain't worth this hassle. Let go, man!"

"I'll pay you more if you come into the courtyard and talk to my brother."

"Oh, yeah? Well the guy gave me a hundred."

"I don't believe you. I will give you fifty dollars. How about it?" He let go of the fellow's shirt.

The two boys looked at each other and decided the money was worth it. Elijah indicated they go into the courtyard and they did.

"I don't know what you want us to say," the talker said. "The dude didn't tell us his name or nothing."

Klaus, hearing the voices, came from his office. "And who have we here?" he asked.

"Young men who delivered a second note," Elijah told him.

Klaus read the note and had questions and, in addition to asking them in a normal manner, he compelled the one boy to repeat what the man had said and to describe him. All the boy could tell was that the fellow was white, probably older than Elijah and Klaus, and was wearing jeans, a tan shirt, a vest of leather, cowboy boots and a western hat. To the boy, he didn't sound like he had an accent. The other boy could not add anything else.

Elijah gave them money and they left. He gave the note to Klaus, who read it. The message said that they had twenty four hours to get Simon released. It also said that there would be no further communication until that time.

Klaus muttered a curse and eyed Elijah critically.

"Don't look at me like that, Niklaus. I suspect he could have slipped away from you, also, if he had been under your supervision. Surely you would not have locked him up."

"No, but I would have had him watched," Klaus said. "You and this Peter Salvatore let him roan about unattended; then to make matters worse, you let kidnappers abduct him from your very presence."

"Do not belabor the point. I know what happened." Elijah felt humiliation that he had failed to prevent the abduction. He was a vampire and an Original and he should have overcome the abductors. It was unfortunate that he had been struck on the head hard enough to slow his reaction too long.

"Let us hope Kol has not been injured," Klaus snapped. "Mortal! How can he be a mortal? Why does he have amnesia? Where the hell is he?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kol sat on the bench seat of the van between two men and trembled as the driver sped along a street going away from the zoo parking lot. He was scared and he hurt. One of the men had stabbed him in the muscles at the back of his left shoulder with something and it hurt. It hurt as if he had been stung by a nasty wasp or two. That was an odd thought, because he could not actually recall having been stung before, and yet, he was sure he had been.

The wound throbbed painfully and cause the muscles to spasm. He kept reaching up to massage it, but that only made it hurt worse. In addition, he felt nausea, either from the pain or from the fear. Probably both, he admitted to himself.

"I'm going to be sick," he told his captors. They spoke his name Kol, but none of them spoke his language. He knew that they didn't understand him. It was very frustrating. They kept looking at him and commenting and shaking their heads. What did they expect of him?

He thought they had somehow poisoned him, perhaps with a poisoned knife tip. He wasn't bleeding, he knew, but something was wrong. He had a new and odd taste in his mouth. He put his hand over his mouth, trying to indicate his nausea, but the man driving the vehicle didn't stop and let him outside.

The men swore and yelled at him when he vomited the hot dog and ice cream and soft drink from the zoo onto the carpeted floor of the van. His sneakers were ruined, too. Would Peter be angry over that? No, Peter didn't get mad about things Kol did. Peter was very nice to him. So was Elijah. His brother. Why couldn't he remember his brother? Or the pretty sister Rebekah? What about Niklaus? Although that brother had spoken softly to him, he had heard him yelling at Elijah on the phone. He didn't like Niklaus.

Would they all come looking for him? How would they find him? And what were these three men going to do to him? Already hurting and sick, he feared they would hurt him more. Despite all the fun he had had on the river and in the zoo, he wished he had stayed in the boring hotel room. He had been told to stay there. All this was his fault.

The van pulled inside a building and another man came to watch as they got out. The two men between whom Kol had sat kept a painfully tight grip on his arms as he stood up outside the vehicle. The new man came over to him and stared coldly into his eyes.

"Remember me, Kol?" he snarled just inches from Kol's face.

The prisoner shook his head, meaning he didn't understand the question.

"No? Well, you should. Al Carmichael. We met in London."

Oddly enough, Kol recalled the word "London." Then he also recalled that he had seen a television show about the city. He couldn't remember actually going there. He said nothing. A muscle cramp bit into his shoulder and pulled on his neck. It brought tears to his eyes as he groaned.

In his own language Kol said, "I don't understand what you're saying. I don't know what you want. Please don't hurt me. I'm sick. Help me."

"What? Speak English!"

"He hasn't said anything in English," one of the men said.

Kol took this moment to vomit again. The men swore at him again.

"What's the matter with him, Slim? Why didn't you use vervain on him?" the man asked.

"I did use it," the driver of the van said, pushing his western hat further back on his head. "Gave him a whopping big dose, but it didn't phase him at all, except make him puke. Are you sure he's a vampire?"

"Of course he is. He's the younger brother of Klaus. He's an Original." He couldn't catch the scent of a vampire on Kol, but he didn't question that because the young man smelled too strongly of vomit.

"He damned sure doesn't act it. We shouldn't be messing with Originals," the van's driver said, frowning. "This is their town and we shouldn't be here."

"I don't care who runs this area as long as we get Simon back," the leader of the four men said. "How strong is he? He's not fighting back."

"He's not strong at all. Weak as a woman. If he's a vampire, he's a sick one."

"That's weird. Go chain him up in the freezer. Then we'll see about sending a ransom note."

So, a miserable Kol sat chained to a chair in a meat freezer, which luckily was not being chilled, while notes were delivered. He felt very sick. His shoulder hurt badly, the injured muscles contracting and pulling his head to the side. His head ached, he was dizzy and his skin was covered with a cold sweat. A light had been left on, but the door was closed and he was alone. After a while, he had a full bladder. No one came to help him or to let him relieve himself and soon his jeans were wet. Feeling truly awful and very depressed, he sat there and sobbed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_A/N Poor Kol, things are getting worse and he has no idea why people are treating him badly. More to come. Please feel free to comment. Thank you for following my story._


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

_A/N Here we go. Another chapter. I hope you like it._

Elijah watched Klaus pacing around the courtyard. They were both very worried about Kol, but in a way Elijah felt a bit of compassion for his blond brother. Klaus obviously cared deeply about the youngest brother, despite how obnoxious Kol could be.

"What do you know about this Peter Salvatore?" Klaus asked Elijah. "I don't trust him. He's probably related to Damon and Stefan Salvatore. I certainly don't trust those brothers, either. My guess is that one of them turned him."

"I agree. I met him by accident in Nashville and we struck up a conversation. We talked for maybe two or three hours about general things and travel, specifically. Interesting man. I did not know he was a Salvatore, because he was using a different name. Theo. Theo Andreopoulos. He … damn!"

Elijah and Klaus stared at each other, thinking the same thing.

"Andreopoulos?" Klaus asked. "Andre?"

"The ransom notes were not for us! They were for **him**," Elijah exclaimed. "The kid who delivered the note to me thought I was the 'old man wearing a suit.' He must not have been told to look for an old man with white hair. Peter was here and left just before the first note arrived."

"Call him. Now," Klaus ordered. "No wonder the notes didn't make any sense."

Elijah's phone rang before he could make the call. It was Peter.

"Elijah, I just used that witch to try to track Kol again. He's locked up. Chained in some room. He's quite ill. We need to find him."

"Peter, he is being held for ransom. The note made no sense to Klaus or me because we don't know who it refers to. Now we think the notes were meant for you."

"Me? Why?"

"Because of your name Andreopoulos. Andre. Do you know someone named Simon who is being held somewhere?"

"Yes! Oh my God. They snatched Kol to try to force me to broker Simon's release. I can't believe this."

"It is the only thing that makes sense."

Klaus grabbed the phone away from Elijah. "Who is this Simon?"

"He's a vampire who has been locked away because of things he's done, like steal from King Alger. I helped capture him about three weeks ago. In Mississippi."

"Do what you have to do to get him released," Klaus snapped. "I want him traded for my brother. Do you understand?"

"Yes. I'll do what I can. I have to make contact first."

"I don't care what you have to do, just do it." In anger, Klaus ended the call.

"I'm sure he'll do the best he can. He cares about Kol," Elijah said as calmly as he could.

"King Alger is in South America somewhere. If this Simon character is there instead of Mississippi, it will take a while to get him up here," Klaus growled, thinking out loud.

"Alger is a vampire," Elijah reminded him. "If I'm not mistaken, he is not a day-walker."

"I know that. What difference does that make?"

"Perhaps none," Elijah conceded.

He knew there were a surprising number of day-walking vampires, especially in the Americas. For some reason, the number was less in the rest of the world. He was of the belief that many day-walkers were, in fact, descended from the Original family. All of the family members, except the mother Esther, a witch, had turned quite a few over the centuries. There had been a terrible die-off of quite a large number with the deaths of Finn and then Kol, but there were plenty left.

In addition, the knowledge of the charmed rings or bracelets was often passed down. Katherine had seen to it that Damon and Stefan Salvatore, both of her making, had rings. Even Peter had one, probably obtained from whichever Salvatore brother turned him.

But King Alger preferred to be a vampire of the night. He was not of the Original line, but his European line was strong and he had been around for a long time. He didn't like Klaus and would likely resist doing anything to help any member of the Original family.

In the meantime, Elijah, Klaus, Rebekah and Marcel had their vampires and others trying to locate where Kol was being kept and who it was that was holding him. Elijah, with the best working relations with the witch population, asked them to help. There was little to go on because the only items Kol had touched were in the hotel rooms where he had spent time with Peter. For some time, all that was known was that Kol was in a small, cold room and he was frightened and in a lot of pain. In addition, the witches could tell he was not anywhere near the Quarter.

Knowing that Kol was mortal and injured caused his siblings a lot of worry. Knowing that the young man could die was of great concern. They didn't want to lose him again.

Elijah, Klaus and Rebekah were together in the house in the Quarter when Peter called the older brother.

"Bad news. He's dead," Peter said.

Shocked, Elijah whispered, "Kol is dead?" Klaus and Rebekah stared at him in shock.

"No! Simon is dead."

"Not Kol," Elijah told his siblings, who relaxed a bit. "Simon is dead."

"He tried to escape without protection and got caught in the sun. Burned up," Peter explained. "I'm sorry, Elijah. I hope Kol's captors will let him go now."

Klaus, who had come close enough to Elijah to hear Peter's words, grabbed the phone. "Let him go? Let him go! They have no reason to even keep him alive now! If they kill my brother, I will personally hold you responsible!"

Elijah snatched the phone back. "Klaus will do no such thing. It isn't your fault, Peter. We are still doing all we can to find Kol. I wish he were still a vampire. He'd have more strength and protection."

"I know what you mean," Peter said. "Have faith that we will find him."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kol expected to see the same men when the door to the freezer opened. He hoped they would release him or help him. Even if they killed him, his suffering would stop. He was ready for it to stop.

The person who entered was a young woman likely in her twenties. Because he didn't see himself as being twenty, he considered her to be older than he was. She held several keys on a key ring in her hand as she looked around.

"Don't be afraid. I've come to get you out of here," she said in English.

"I don't know what you're saying. Help me!" Kol pleaded. He had a hard time looking at her because his spasming muscles had pulled his head back and to the side.

"I have the keys. If I can get you unlocked, you can leave. Are you a vampire? I thought vampires were strong. You look awful. Sick."

"Please unlock these chains so I can get free. Are you going to let me go?"

"What language are you speaking? Are you a foreigner? I can't understand a word you're saying. If you are a vampire, please don't attack me."

"Please let me go. That's it, unlock that padlock. These chains are heavy. I don't know why they put such heavy chains on me."

"You are soaked. They should have let you use the toilet. My brother can be so mean sometimes."

"I can hardly move my head. The wound in my shoulder is like a fiery arrow. I think I will die from its festering. Do you know a doctor?"

"What is the matter with your neck? Do you have a stiff neck? I know that can be painful."

"I wish I hadn't peed my pants, but I couldn't help it."

"My name is Patty. What's yours?"

"Do you have a car? Can you drive me to an herbal doctor? A poultice might draw out the poison."

The girl worked on another padlock. She had Kol's ankles free. She then moved to release the one on his left wrist. When she had that undone, she watched him flex his fingers and slowly his elbow. She saw his head pull toward his left shoulder and he cried out.

"That must hurt. You're sweating, but your skin is cold. I hope you don't have a disease I can catch."

"Please hurry," Kol gasped, tears running down his face. He was embarrassed to shed tears of pain in front of her. He couldn't raise his left arm to brush them away.

Patty released his right arm and he reached up to slide his hand under his shirt to feel his shoulder. The skin under there was hot and tight and swollen.

"Patty," the girl said, pointing to herself.

"Patty," Kol repeated. He pointed to his own chest. "Kol."

"Pleased to meet you, Cole." She assumed the English spelling. "Since you can't understand me, I'll speak my mind. You are one good-looking guy. If you were in better shape, I think we could get something going, if you know what I mean. Well, I guess you have no idea what I'm saying." She moved behind him and undid the lock holding the chain around his chest. "I sure hope you don't turn on me."

As the chain around his chest slid down to his lap, Kol realized he was free and he tried to stand up. He was surprised that he was as weak and as unsteady as he proved to be. Patty took his good right arm and put it over her shoulders to help steady him. He admired her because he knew he smelled bad with sweat, urine and traces of vomit on him.

The two of them made it from the freezer and out into a large room. No one was there. She let go of him and hurried over to a desk, where she put the ring of keys in a drawer. Then she came back to Kol and steered him toward a door. Outside, he saw there was one car. Where were the men and the vehicle they had had him in?

The young woman headed for the car and helped Kol get into the passenger seat. She got behind the wheel and eased the car from the parking lot. Not for the first time, it amazed Kol that women had no trouble handling these big machines.

"I'm not sure where I should take you," Patty said as she drove along. "Maybe I've made a stupid mistake and Al will make me pay for it. He's a vampire. Vampire. Do you know that word in your language?"

"Vampire?" Kol repeated. He did not know the word, although he had heard both Peter and Elijah use it. So had his captors. It had to be important and was somehow used with regards to him. He wasn't sure why. Was he supposed to be a vampire? What did it mean? His brother and sister had thought him dead. Did the word mean resurrected?

Had he died and somehow become alive again? Was that possible without being in Valhalla?

He somehow knew his mother was a witch. Or she had been. Elijah had told him his parents were now dead. Maybe he had died with them. Mother could do strong magic, it was said. She could heal, that was certain. He needed one of his mother's healing spells right now, or at least one of her herbal poultices. Or honey. That was good for some things.

As he sat in the vehicle hurtling down some street, he had flashes of memory. His mother cooking over a fire. His father honing his sword. Strange clothing. Elijah and his sister Rebekah, who was younger than he. A little boy playing with a wooden sword. There were others in the dwelling, which was large and rustic.

He was sure these were scenes from his past and yet they were not like what he was seeing in the present. Where had his family been living then that was so different from now? It must have been in a different country because he spoke a different language. Why hadn't he learned the English that Peter, Elijah and everyone else spoke?

"I don't understand what you're muttering about, Cole," Patty said. "I think your fever is making you delirious. I better take you to a hospital. I suppose you don't have insurance. I do from my work, but it won't cover you. I'll have to say you are my friend visiting from Europe. Since you haven't told me your last name, I'll call you Coleton Smith. How does that sound? You like it? Coleton Smith."

"Kolton Smith?"

"Yes. Okay?"

Kol didn't know what to say. Elijah had said nothing about Smith. Was that his name or was Patty just making that up? Actually, he didn't care. He was free of the chains and the men who had hurt him. Now, he needed help with whatever was going on in his shoulder.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_A/N So, Kol is now free, but he still needs help. What will Patty do with him? I want to again thank you all for reading this story. I also want to thank those of you who are reading many of my other TVD stories as well. I love you._


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Kol's captors had made contact with Elijah again. The note, delivered by another boy who knew nothing about the man who gave it to him, told Elijah to go to a certain pay phone to wait for a call. Whereas pay phones used to be very common, there were not many of them now that so many people carried cell phones. Elijah did as he was told, while Klaus had people watching from several places.

"Who are you?" demanded the voice on the other end of the call. Elijah was not surprised that he was being watched. He hoped Klaus would spot the caller somehow, probably on another pay phone, but maybe not.

"I am Elijah. I received your message."

"Elijah? Brother of Klaus?"

"Yes. Do I know you?"

"No. The message was for Andre. You are not the right man."

"I know. I have talked to the other man. He has white hair, does he not?"

"Yes. Where is he?"

"Waiting."

"What is the word about Simon?"

Elijah lied about Simon's situation, having agreed with Peter and Klaus that the captors might just kill Kol if they found out Simon was dead.

"Andre can get him free. He has influence. But we must set up an exchange of the two men, my brother Kol for Simon."

"Fine. When will Andre have Simon?"

"By midnight. Kol is not well right now. Don't hurt him."

"What's wrong with him? He was given a shot of vervain and it didn't touch him. Except it made him puke."

"It will not affect him in the usual manner. In his condition, it will harm him. He's weak. Do not try to give him more." He was hesitant to reveal that Kol was human. Would that put him in more or less danger?

"Don't need to. He's chained up. Look, I'll call this number around midnight and we'll set up something."

"Alright," Elijah said, although he heard the other man hang up. He looked at his watch. Midnight was only three hours away, since night had already fallen. He was very concerned about Kol. He knew injected vervain in a dose big enough for a vampire would harm a human. The liquid became sterile while being boiled during decoction, but the syringe and handling of it thereafter were usually not sterile. Elijah had seen it cause a nasty abscess in a human at the injection site. Poor Kol was probably quite ill by now.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Patty's brother Al, after talking to Elijah on the phone, received a phone call himself. He was told Kol was not chained to the chair anymore.

"Who let him loose? Where is he?" Al snapped.

"We don't know. We got back and checked on him. The padlocks were all open and he was gone."

Al spent a long moment swearing. "How could the padlocks be opened? Are the keys gone?"

"The keys are where you put then. Whoever let him loose probably picked the locks."

"Get out there and look for him, damn it!" Al shouted. How could he get Simon if he didn't have Kol to exchange? He would have to think of something.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Elijah phoned and reported to Klaus and Peter, the latter being at the house in the Quarter. All three of them were very concerned over the vervain injection, which made a bad situation worse. By the time Elijah got to the house, Marcel was also there. Marcel, a handsome African American, didn't particularly like Elijah and the feeling was mutual. There was also an uneasy truce between Klaus and Marcel. The Original closest to the black man was Rebekah because they had been lovers.

Marcel had many vampires loyal to him in the city and they were on the lookout for Kol or anyone who might need to be watched. He reported that at least three vampires had come to town in the last twenty four hours. One of them was Peter. The other two were seen together with a small group of human men and a young woman. It was thought they had a place in the community of Kenner, near the big airport, but the actual location had not been found yet. Now that it was dark outside, many more of Marcel's vampires were combing the area.

In addition, all who were looking had been told that Kol was not a vampire and was not to be treated as such; in other words, he was more fragile than a vampire. Quite a few members of the police force were aware of the strong presence of vampires, especially in the Quarter, and they too were alerted that the brother of Klaus was a human and was missing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kol himself only knew that he was very ill and in pain. He tried to tell Patty this, but guessed she could see that. In fact, Patty looked so worried that he thought she feared he was going to die. _I'm going to die! How will Peter and Elijah find out?_

"I'm going to take you to that walk-in clinic up ahead. They are still open. Maybe they can give you an antibiotic or something," Patty told him. In a few minutes, she pulled into the parking lot. She was able to get Kol out of the car and into the building. The receptionist stared at him with alarm.

"Miss, you need to get him to a hospital! The doctor can't treat someone in his condition here!"

"You don't even know what his condition is!" Patty snapped. "Get the doctor out here now." She couldn't hold Kol up, so she sat him in one of the plastic chairs.

The doctor and a nurse came hurrying to the reception area and approached Kol. The young man felt he was being attacked and cringed away, falling off the chair. He landed on his left shoulder and screamed. He then scooted back into the nearby corner of the room, where he sat slouched against the wall.

"Whoa!" the doctor said. "Easy now! Don't move. What is your name, young man?"

"His name is Cole," Patty said. "He doesn't speak English."

"Spanish? French?" the doctor asked her.

"No. I don't know what it is. I can't talk to him. It isn't German or Polish, either."

"Drugs? Has he taken any street drugs?"

"Not as far as I know. Something is wrong with his left shoulder or that side of his neck. He doesn't use his left arm."

"Did he fall? Could you tell if his shoulder is dislocated or his arm broken?"

"I don't know what happened. There's no blood. He was sitting in a chair when I found him."

The doctor wanted to examine the patient, of course, and perhaps take an x-ray of his shoulder. He tried to use hand signals to tell Kol to remove his sweatshirt, under which he had a buttoned shirt. Kol didn't trust the man who had squatted down in front of him and he didn't know what the man intended. He made no attempt to remove his hoodie. When the man slowly reached out toward the front of the open sweatshirt, Kol grabbed his wrist with his right hand and pushed it away.

"He has more than pain. He has an elevated temperature," the doctor said, feeling the heat in the skin of the hand. "He's really ill. He needs to go to a hospital emergency room right away. I can't treat him here. We had better call an ambulance."

The room was cold and Kol started shivering. A blanket was brought for him and Patty put it over him up to his shoulders. He would otherwise not allow anyone to do anything for him. He remained slouched against the wall, moaning now and then with pain. The doctor and nurse went to the back area to see to a patient still waiting back there. Patty sat in a chair near Kol, while the receptionist eyed both of them warily. She had called for an ambulance.

The arrival of the emergency medical team with their vehicle lights flashing did nothing to ease Kol's fear. He did have a high fever and was delirious. When the team members came into the room and moved toward him, he screamed and kicked at them. Without knowing why, he drew his lips back into a snarl and bared his teeth. He had no fangs, but he was ready to bite. The medical people halted their approach as Patty jumped up and told them to wait. The doctor and nurse hurried back into the room. Everyone stared at Kol.

Within a couple of minutes it was established that Kol was not going to let anyone touch him without a fight. The ambulance people had dealt with injured, drunk or drugged people who were not cooperative, but there was a limit to what they would do. They didn't want to make the person's situation worse, nor did they want to get hurt themselves. Technically, the person could refuse help from them.

A police car arrived and joined the group discussing the situation. The more crazily Kol acted, the worse the situation got. He needed help badly, but he was like a wounded, frightened animal. One of the cops wanted to use a taser on him to try to subdue him, but the doctor told him not to do that, that it might kill him. The police thought the young man was on drugs, while the doctor insisted he was ill with a high fever. In fact, it finally dawned on the doctor that the patient might have some tropical communicable disease and they were all being exposed to it.

While most of the group concentrated on the cowering man, one of the cops moved outside and got on his phone and called Marcel.

"Look, I think we might have found your missing man Kol," he told the vampire. "This guy fits his description and is probably around twenty. The woman with him says his name is Kol. He doesn't speak English, Spanish or French. He is very sick and totally uncooperative. Wild. He's at a walk-in clinic. Do you speak his language?"

"No, but I know who does. Keep him there," Marcel ordered and asked for the location.

The policeman reported to the group that help was coming, someone who could talk to Kol. In the meantime, everyone stayed back away from him so that he could calm down a bit. Patty sat on the floor not far from his right side and he didn't move away from her. When she reached out her hand, he took it, squeezing it hard enough to make her gasp. Slowly he eased up on the grip.

The doctor warned her about contact. She replied that if he had a serious disease, she figured she had already been exposed, so she didn't mind touching him. She would stay right where she was.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_A/N I hope you liked this chapter. I'm working on the next one. Thank you all for reading._


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Marcel phoned Klaus, who was with Elijah and Peter at the house. In a few minutes, it was established that the three of them would drive to the clinic in one car. Elijah didn't think Klaus should go, but the blond man insisted. Although he had talked to Kol on the phone, he hadn't seen him in person and he wanted to do so.

The three of them arrived at the clinic to find an ambulance and two police cars there. A policeman outside the door stopped them until they explained that they had been called because they were kin to Kol and spoke his language. They were then admitted into the reception area which was crowded with several people. They also saw Kol cowering in the corner, a blanket over him as he shivered and moaned. A young woman sat close to him on the floor.

Klaus spoke up first. "There are too many people here. I need you to step outside while we talk to my brother."

Although the emergency medical people were willing to go outside, the police were not. They didn't take orders from civilians.

"I am Klaus Mikaelson," Klaus said with authority. "Some of you know who I am. I am insisting that you give Kol more space. He is frightened by all of you standing around staring at him."

The cop who had called Marcel urged the others to go outside and they finally did so, although they stood around just outside the door. The doctor, nurse, receptionist and Patty remained.

"I don't advise you to touch him," the doctor said. "He may have a contagious disease."

"We won't catch it," Klaus told him.

"You don't know that!"

Klaus looked him in the eyes and said in a firm, compelling voice, "We will not catch any disease from Kol. You will do as we ask."

"Alright, I will," the doctor said calmly, not realizing he was compelled. The nurse and Pattty recognized it for what it was. Neither said anything.

Kol saw and recognized Peter and Elijah, but he wasn't sure if he was imagining them. He was so sick that his thoughts were muddled. He heard the bossy man say he was Klaus. Was that Niklaus, his other brother?

Elijah knelt down a couple of feet in front of his sick brother. He thought Kol looked about to pass out. He shifted his gaze to the young woman. "And you are?"

"Patty. I've been helping Cole."

Elijah had more questions for her, but he turned his attention to his younger brother.

"Kol, can you hear me?" Elijah asked in their old language.

"Yes," Kol whispered. He would have nodded, but he couldn't move his head, which was still pulled to one side. "Are you really here, Elijah? I don't know what is real."

"I am here. Peter is here. This other man is our brother Niklaus. We were frightened for you. You are sick and in pain. Someone hurt you." Elijah was speaking slowly and briefly because he wasn't sure how much Kol would understand in his condition.

"My shoulder and neck hurt. I don't know what is wrong. I was chained up and Patty came and let me loose." He had tears of pain running down his face.

Patty, sitting next to him, heard him use her name. "My brother had him prisoner. I freed him and brought him here. I don't know what Al will do to me."

"Your brother?"

"Yes. Al Carmichael. He's a … you know. I didn't realize Cole was a

Mikaelson."

"We have many questions," Klaus said. "but right now we need to do something to help Kol. He was given a large dose of vervain by injection. We think it is the cause of his illness."

"Vervain?" the doctor asked. "Isn't that used to sedate vampires?" Some knowledge about vampires was common in the area because of the large number of vampires in residence. "Cole can't be a vampire and be this sick, can he?"

"He is not a vampire," Elijah said. "That is the problem."

Kol heard the word 'vampire' being used and he still didn't understand it. He just wanted Elijah and Peter to make the pain go away.

"Did someone stick something into your neck or shoulder?" Elijah asked his sick brother.

"Yes! It hurts so bad. Please make it better. Elijah, help me!"

"I will. Can I see your shoulder? Will you let me remove your shirt?"

"It will hurt!"

"I can cut open the shirt and that way it won't hurt much."

Klaus asked the doctor for scissors. The nurse had a pair in her pocket and handed them over.

Starting at the elbow, Elijah slowly cut the sleeve of the hoodie and the cotton shirt under it as the policeman who had talked to Marcel came back into the room.

"Can we release the paramedics? They need to go on another call if you don't want them."

"Let them go," Klaus said.

"What do you want the rest of us to do?" the cop asked. "Some report will have to be made out. We need to know if that fellow has a contagious disease. Are we quarantined? None of us actually touched him."

"You know we are vampires, don't you?" Klaus said, looking at him sternly.

"Yeah, I know that. I know Marcel."

"We will take care of Kol. He has been poisoned, but we have the antidote. He will recover. He's not contagious. We will take care of this matter ourselves. Report that."

"Yes, sir," the cop said. He knew better than to argue with the vampire who was presently ruling the French Quarter. He didn't like the situation, but he didn't argue. In fact, he was relieved to get away from the vampires.

Elijah cut the material until he was at the neck area. Kol kept wincing and groaning from his infection and pain, but not from Elijah's actions. Gently pushing the fabric aside, Elijah, as well as the others, could see the swollen, red area from shoulder to neck.

"That has to hurt," Klaus said with a small sympathetic groan. "What do you suggest we do about it?"

"Won't your blood heal him?" the doctor asked. He knew vampire blood had great healing properties, but it was also illegal to use it as a treatment, at least by doctors.

"I'm not sure," Elijah said. "Perhaps not with all the vervain he has in his system." He looked up at Klaus and then Peter.

"If we started an intravenous, we could try giving the blood in small doses and see what happens," Klaus suggested. "Do you have what is needed to start an IV, doctor?"

"Yes, but only in 100ml bags. I have antibiotics. All that swelling looks like a serious infection. First, you need to get Cole to allow us to start an IV. He seems frightened of everything."

"Go get the IV ready," Klaus ordered. "Do you also have any sedative medication?"

"I have one that might work, but I don't think he'll let me inject him," the doctor said with serious doubt.

"We'll do it."

Elijah looked at Kol's brown eyes, somewhat flooded with tears that were not at the moment running down his face. There was the look of trust and of pleading.

"Kol, the doctor is going to bring a bag of water made to flow into a vein," the oldest brother said. "I am going to stick a needle into a vein. I …"

"No! I don't want anything more stuck into me," Kol insisted, looking fearful again.

"It will let me give you some medicine that will ease you pain."

"I can swallow it."

"It won't work that way," Klaus said, knowing any oral pain medicine would take a while to work. Kol needed something faster.

Patty, still sitting beside the injured young man, gently squeezed his hand. She was pleased he squeezed back.

"Does you brother know you released him?" Elijah asked her.

"He may know Kol's gone now. He wasn't there at the time. No one was. I plan to tell him I was at a movie and I don't know anything."

"Will he accept that?"

"I think so. Although he has been known to compel me a time or two."

"That is no way to treat one's sister," Klaus said with a snort. There had been times when he would have compelled his sister, if she could be compelled, which she was resistant to as an Original.

"If Kol were not on vervain, we could probably compel him to be compliant," he said to Elijah.

"That would have been convenient."

The doctor walked in with an IV pole with a small bag of fluid hung on it. Attached was the clear tubing. In his hand were several packaged needles.

"Do you want me to try to start this?" he asked.

"No. I can do it," Elijah said. He could see Kol eyeing the set-up with alarm. Taking the batch of needles, Elijah chose one and opened the package.

"Look, Kol. I am going to stick one of these into my own vein to show you that it is not dangerous and it hardly hurts."

Kol didn't like the idea, as if Elijah was going to burn himself. "Don't do that!"

"It is alright. You'll see. Once I have a needle in your vein, I can let that water run into your vein and add the pain medicine. Now, watch."

Elijah had good veins on the back of his hand and his forearm. He had Peter take a good grip on his upper forearm to make the veins bulge more and then stuck the metal needle right into one of the vessels. Blood immediately ran out. He had to assume Kol would not pass out at the sight of blood.

The doctor handed Peter, who was kneeling beside Elijah, a gauze pad and some tape. As Elijah pulled out the needle, the bleeding stopped and Peter taped the pad in place. He handed Elijah another pad to wipe the loose blood from his arm.

"See how easy that was?" Elijah asked Kol. "Will you let me do that to you? It's very important. Isn't it, Peter?" He had to tell Peter in English to nod his head. Peter did.

Kol looked from Elijah to Peter to Klaus. He managed to move his head enough to see Patty. All of them were nodding at him. "Alright," he whispered.

Although they each worried that Kol would suddenly resist and fight them, the young man did not. He gritted his teeth as Elijah pushed up the sleeve on his right arm. He wouldn't let go of Patty's hand, squeezing it until she had to grit her own teeth. He groaned as the needle went in and luckily entered the vein Elijah had chosen without using a rubber tourniquet to increase the size of the vein. In a moment the IV tubing was connected and tape held everything in place.

With intravenous access established, the doctor held out vials of drugs. One was a tranquilizer to sedate Kol a little and the other was an antibiotic. When Elijah slowly administered some tranquilizer, Kol began to relax and slump against Patty.

"Don't give too much," Klaus admonished. "He's weak. We don't want to put him in shock and kill him."

"I know that. I think we can lay him down. On his right side," Elijah said.

In a minute they had the young man stretched out on his right side. They had to support his head, which was still to the side, pulled by taught muscles. Patty insisted that she could continue to sit where she was and to let Kol's head rest on her lap.

The doctor wanted to check Kol's blood pressure and he did this. It was quite low. "What are you going to do now?" he asked Kol's attendants. "I think it would be a good idea to put the antibiotic in the IV."

Klaus told him to do that.

"I think he has an abscess in his shoulder. How long do you think it has been there?" the doctor then said.

"A few hours. He may have an abscess," Elijah said, "but the real problem is the injected vervain. It usually is not sterile. The dose was meant for a vampire. A slug of it was put into his muscles and it's way too much for a human. His body is treating it as a poison and infectious material."

"Do we try blood or not?" Klaus said impatiently. "I think we should give it a go."

Patty sat in silence, the young man's heavy head on her lap. She could feel saliva drooling from his mouth onto her leg. She didn't care. She stroked his brown hair, damp with sweat, and hoped the various treatments made a difference. She was angry with Kol's initial captors for assuming he was still a vampire and giving him a near-fatal dose of vervain.

"Is he a bit mentally challenged?" she asked the group in general. "He looks older than he acts."

"He was not, but something happened to him," Elijah told her. He was still kneeling close to Kol. Peter had stood up. Klaus was pacing. The doctor watched the patient and the IV drip, while the nurse had gone to the back area to clean the place up, since the other patient had left. It was closing time and the receptionist was in the back, also preparing to leave.

Patty's phone rang, startling everyone. She reached for her purse and pulled out the phone. Klaus indicated to everyone that they keep silent.

"Al? What's up?" Patty asked.

_A/N Well, Kol has been rescued. Will his treatment help him? What will Patty tell her brother? I hope you liked this chapter. More to come._


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

_A/N While Patty sits with Kol, her brother phones her. Does he know she took Kol?_

"Where are you?" Al asked.

"I just got out of a movie. Why?

"Our prisoner has escaped. Did you let him go?"

"Al! I went to a show. You know I try not to get involved in whatever you're doing."

"I planned to exchange Kol for Simon. You remember Simon. Your true love."

The others in the room could hear his loud sarcasm.

"Of course! So, what are you going to do about Simon now? You need to get him freed."

"I'll try to fake the exchange tonight. If it works, you'll get Simon back."

"I hope it works," Patty said, real concern on her face. Al hung up on her and she just stared at the phone for a long moment. Then she looked at the faces staring at her.

"I didn't know about the exchange," she said, her hand still resting on Kol's hair.

"It wasn't going to take place as your brother expects," Elijah said calmly. "I'm sorry, but I have to tell you that Simon is dead. Peter here was going to try to get him for the exchange, but he had already been killed. Again, I am sorry you've lost a man you love."

"Bad luck always followed Simon," Patty said softly, tears now running down her face and dripping off her chin onto Kol's hair. She sniffed, but she didn't sob aloud. Elijah, who always had a clean handkerchief handy, gave her his.

"So," Klaus said with a snort. "We don't have Simon and your brother does not have Kol. No exchange. All we have to do is cure Kol. Let us do the blood. Doctor, draw some blood from me. About ten ml's."

While this was being done, Elijah's phone rang. It was Rebekah.

"Have you found him? I just got a report that you and Klaus are in a clinic in Kenner."

"Yes. He's ill and we are treating him. He's not a captive anymore. I suppose our movements have been observed."

"Tell her I'll have some of my people come to stand guard here," Klaus said.

Elijah did this. As soon as the blood was drawn, Klaus also made the necessary phone call.

"I hope Al doesn't discover where we are first," Patty said. "I should leave."

"You should shower and change your clothes," Elijah said to her. "Your brother will certainly smell Kol's scent on you if you do not." Kol, in fact, smelled strongly of sweat, urine and vomit. He smelled of fear.

"I have a room of my own at a motel. I can sneak in there and do as you say," the young woman agreed. "I'll get away with it unless Al or one of the guys is out watching us here."

"Was he in your car?" Klaus asked.

"Yes. Oh wow! The car will smell of him, too. It's a rental. I'll either have to exchange it or have it cleaned tomorrow before Al has a chance to smell it."

"Good plan," Peter agreed.

Pillows were found to take the place of her lap under Kol's head and in a few minutes, she left the clinic, taking with her the thanks of the men who cared about young Kol.

"I hope she'll be alright," Peter said. "She has put her safely on the line for Kol."

"Her brother and his men will be run out of town," Klaus growled. "Or I will kill them."

"That would be no way to reward Patty," Peter said. He felt less and less intimidated by the powerful Originals. He knew Klaus wielded considerable power in the Quarter and New Orleans in general, and he knew they were physically very strong, plus it was unusually difficult to kill an Original, but for the most part, they were not that different from any other vampire or confident human.

"Rewarding people is not my strong suit," Klaus said with a snort. "Sparing them is reward enough."

"She has lost a lover. Sparing her the loss of a brother would be kind," Peter persisted calmly.

Klaus just laughed.

In the meantime, Elijah prepared to give Kol some of Klaus' blood. Using the same access port in the IV line that he had used to give the tranquilizer, he began injecting the blood into Kol's vein. None of them knew if there would be a clash between the blood and the vervain in Kol's body, but they hoped the blood would win.

Elijah did not use more than a third of the blood, giving about three ml's. "I would like to try injecting some of this close around the shoulder wound," he said to the blond brother.

"Give it a go," Klaus said. He picked up Kol's stiff left arm and pulled gently on it, giving Elijah better access to the swollen and discolored shoulder. Since Kol's body had not yet shown signs of a bad reaction to the intravenous blood, Elijah proceeded to inject here and there into the shoulder flesh.

This procedure hurt Kol through his heavy sedation and he began to groan and move. Klaus told Peter to give more tranquilizer, which Peter did under Elijah's direction. Medicating humans was not something Peter was used to doing. He was a businessman, not a doctor. The real doctor wisely stayed back, but he watched carefully and made himself keep quiet. If the vampires killed their human brother, then it would not be his fault.

After a few minutes, it became apparent that the vampire blood was helping to heal Kol. The muscles of his neck seemed to be relaxing, letting his head assume a more natural position. The redness and tightness of his swollen shoulder seemed somewhat reduced.

"I believe the blood is working," Klaus said, leaning down to get a closer look.

"It appears so," Elijah agreed.

"Thank God," Peter murmured.

"I wish we could legally use vampire blood to help people," the doctor said. "It works like a miracle."

"You could use it illegally," Klaus told him. "It is being done. Of course, one must find a willing donor. I feel safe in saying that most of us would not willingly give it away."

"I understand there is some danger of creating a new vampire, though," the doctor said, frowning.

"There is that," Klaus agreed with a smirk. He, Elijah and Peter knew the chances of that happening were low unless the extenuating circumstances might lead to death. Soldiers under fire in combat zones were not necessarily good candidates, since they might get killed with vampire blood in their systems. The truth was that Kol was presently vulnerable to being turned. His brothers were not eager to do that to him.

Minutes passed as the group watched Kol's condition improve. They let him come out of the sedation. When he seemed to struggle to sit up, Elijah got hold of him under his arms and lifted him, sitting him up against the wall again.

Kol groaned and opened his eyes, trying to focus on Elijah. He was able to hold his head up straight.

"You're going to be alright, Kol," Elijah told him. "Does your shoulder hurt less? It should, I would think."

Kol looked a bit bleary-eyed because he was still somewhat sedated. He used his right hand to feel his left shoulder. "Hurts."

"I am sure it does, but it looks much better."

Kol looked around, seeing Peter close to him, Klaus standing and the doctor.

"Patty had to leave," Elijah said.

"Patty?"

"Yes. She had to leave. We hope her brother will not find out she helped you."

"How?"

"How what?"

"How did she help me?"

In English, Elijah said to Peter, "He asked how Patty helped him."

The four men stared at the youngest one. Had he forgotten what happened? Had his illness, delirium and the medication erased that memory?

"It's alright, Kol," Klaus said. "It does not matter now. What is important is that you are safe and recovering from injury to your shoulder."

Kol looked at the IV tubing and needle. He frowned at them. "What's this?" he asked Elijah.

Elijah explained.

"I don't want this!" Kol whined, upset. "Take it away."

"Something is not right here," Klaus said in English.

"Let's give him time to recover," Elijah urged calmly, also in English.

"Why are you talking like that? I don't understand it." Kol complained.

"Peter here does not speak our language, so I have to explain to him what you say."

"Oh. Take this thing off my arm."

"Alright. Hold still," Elijah said and he proceeded to pull the tape loose. Kol whined again because it pulled his arm hairs. When the needle was removed, the small wound bled. The doctor handed Elijah more gauze pads and tape.

"Put some pressure on it for a minute," the doctor suggested and Elijah did.

"What happened to me? How did I hurt my shoulder?" Kol asked in a small voice.

"Someone hit you with something," Elijah said, guessing that the truth would confuse the young man.

"Papa hit me?"

"No, not Papa. Why would you think that?"

"Papa gets mad at me. And he hits Niklaus a lot," Kol explained. He didn't look up at Klaus.

Klaus knelt down and looked at Kol with a worried expression. "Kol, do you know who I am?"

"Niklaus. But you look different. Are you old enough to grow a beard? It makes you look like a grown man." Kol reached out with his right hand to touch the yellow stubble.

"Kol, how many years do you have now?" Elijah asked warily.

Kol had to think about this for a long moment. "Six summers, I think. Is it summer? I will have seven summers. I'm a big boy."

_A/N Kol is getting younger and younger. How far will this go?_


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

_A/N Here we go, another chapter. The group is in the doctor's clinic with Kol who is sitting on the floor and feeling better since the treatment with Klaus' blood._

Klaus stood up, swearing under his breath. Elijah and Peter, who were still kneeling near Kol, both looked up at the blond brother. They could see tears had flooded his eyes. Neither of the kneeling men were surprised, Peter because he though Klaus was upset about what was happening to Kol, and Elijah because he understood and because he knew Klaus was quick to produce tears.

"I'm sorry, Niklaus," Kol said, also looking up at his big brother.

"What are you sorry about, little brother?" Klaus asked, trying to blink the tears away. One had already escaped and he brushed it away with a hand.

"I make you cry."

"It's not your fault," Klaus growled. He was embarrassed to produce the tears in front of Peter and the doctor. All his life he had been unable to stop the damned tears if his feelings were deeply hurt or he felt certain strong emotions. His father had condemned him and ridiculed him for it. He called it a sissy, womanly trait. Mikael had later taken pleasure in berating Klaus and watching the tears flow. He had loved to do it in front of other people. It was one of several reasons Klaus hated even the memory of Mikael.

"Niklaus is just happy you are better now," Elijah told Kol. "Do you feel strong enough to stand up yet?"

"I can stand up," Kol said confidently, but he needed help. Both Elijah and Peter held him by his arms as he got up to his knees first. He stopped and looked up at them and grinned. "See?"

The two men looked down at him. Despite Kol's real size, he somehow looked like a little boy, especially since he was still down on his knees.

"Stand up," Klaus said.

"I am."

"No. Look at your legs. You are kneeling."

Kol looked, a confused expression on his face. The men knew that if he thought he was a young boy, then he was comfortable looking up at his older brothers. They could see the confusion increase as Kol managed to stand up on his feet. He was basically as tall as the men. In fact, he was certainly taller than Peter.

"It's alright. You grew much taller recently," Elijah said calmly, trying to ease his confusion.

Kol was not very steady on his feet yet, so Elijah and Peter held onto his arms. They walked Kol to the front door, while Klaus paid the doctor generously for the whole episode. He could have compelled him to forget the whole thing, but he only compelled him to keep it a secret.

Not surprisingly, Kol eyed the vehicle outside with suspicion.

"It's just a modern wagon," Elijah said. He guessed that Kol's present memories went back to the time when the family was part of a small Viking settlement in Virginia. Two of the families had made wagons that had been pulled by the few ponies brought on the ships. The ponies had died within fifteen years, including three young ones, and after that, only hand carts had been used.

So, they convinced Kol to get into Klaus' big SUV with Peter in the passenger seat and Elijah in back with Kol. Klaus took an evasive route back into the city with several of his men driving in a manner that led any other observers away. Klaus then headed out again, going to the rural mansion that belonged to the family. Kol slouched down against Elijah and kept his eyes closed most of the time. The speed of the vehicle seemed to frighten him.

"I am supposed to wait at that public phone for Al's call," Elijah reminded Klaus.

"Why bother? Kol is safe with us and Simon is dead."

"The man doesn't know Simon is dead."

"I tell you what, I will put out the word that he is dead. Al will find out. Since he does not have Kol, he will have to forget the whole thing. I may hunt him up and kill him for doing this to our brother."

After a pause, Peter said, "I doubt Kol remembers me and Memphis."

"Why do you say that?" Klaus asked.

"He's regressing in age. Memory-wise, he's now younger than when he and I met."

"I see your point."

They came to the mansion and all four got out of the vehicle.

"This is one of our homes," Elijah told Peter, who was eyeing the lovely old place.

"Is it antebellum? It looks to be in wonderful shape." He noted that there were lights on in some of the rooms and on the veranda.

"Yes. It has been maintained all along and modernized somewhat. At present, there is a married couple who live in a small house on the grounds and look after the place. Also, we have a young woman guest."

As they entered the main foyer, a dark-haired young woman, some months pregnant, came from one of the rooms.

"Peter, this is Haley. Haley, this is Peter, a friend," Elijah said.

"Pleased to meet you, Peter. What is wrong with Kol?" she asked. She didn't know him well. Mostly, she knew he had been the mean youngest brother who had been killed by Elena Gilbert and her brother. She also had been notified that he had come back alive and was in New Orleans.

"He is not well," Klaus said. "He is human again. In addition, he seems to think he is a six-year-old child. And he does not speak English."

"A witch's spell?" Haley asked, looking at Elijah.

"Probably a spell brought him back from the Other Side. We have no idea why he has memory problems, but he is regressing into childhood. Right now, he needs a bath, a change of clothing and a meal."

"I can smell him," Haley said, wrinkling her nose. She carried the werewolf trait, which had been activated, but she could control it on the nights of the full moon. What made her very special, was that she was pregnant with Klaus' child. That had been a surprise to the vampire/werewolf hybrid Klaus, who had thought he was sterile. Apparently, on the nights of the full moon, he was not.

Kol, who could not understand the conversation, was interested in his image in an antique mirror.

"Who is that?" he asked no one in particular.

"You."

"That's not me. That's a big person."

"You went to sleep and while you were asleep, you grew up. It's a surprise, isn't it?" Elijah said gently.

"Was I asleep a long time? I don't remember growing up?" Kol asked, perplexed.

"Don't worry about it, little brother," Klaus said. "Come. I will show you upstairs to a nice room where you can bathe and change clothes. I think that between Elijah and me, we can find clothes that will fit you. Haley, love, please make him a couple of sandwiches."

The older brothers, as well as Rebekah, kept some clothes at both the mansion and the house in the French Quarter. As vampires, they tended to get blood on their clothes, although Elijah prided himself on neatness. Unfortunately, the brothers also got into physical fights, not only with others, but also with each other. Sometimes, Elijah gave up on the idea of looking well-dressed and resorted to neat jeans, T-shirts and leather jackets. It was much like what Klaus regularly wore, although the blond brother sometimes wore fashionably raggedy clothes, a fact that embarrassed Elijah.

Klaus turned to Peter. "Make yourself comfortable. Help yourself to a drink."

"Thank you. I'd like to wash my hands," Peter said.

"I'll show you the powder room," Haley said with a smile.

Elijah and Klaus walked with Kol to the foot of the elegant stairway.

"Do you think you can climb the stairs?" Elijah asked.

"Of course," Kol said, grinning. He was definitely feeling better. However, he was not as strong as he thought, and he was exhausted by the time they reached the upper hall. His brothers held onto his arms to support him and walked him to the nearest bathroom. Like all really old houses, this one had not originally included plumbing and electrical wiring. Eventually, small bathrooms were created, the kitchen was modernized and wiring was run where needed in the house.

Kol, who seemed to have forgotten what plumbing was, had to examine everything, while his brothers found themselves undressing him. They carefully removed the cut jacket and shirt, and noted that the injured, infected shoulder was very much improved. Kol was not favoring it at all. They had him sit on the toilet with the lid down in order to untie and remove the shoes. Finally, they removed the button-fly jeans. Kol had on no underwear.

There was a full-length mirror on the bathroom door and Kol found his nude image to be fascinating. With innocent curiosity, he touched the hair on his chest and ran his hand down to the interesting adult male parts he now didn't recall having. While Elijah turned on the water in the tub/shower to get hot water, Klaus watched his little brother play with himself with the expected results.

"If you keep playing with that thing, you'll go blind," Klaus finally said with impatience. He didn't know why he said such a thing, having quoted an old saying that he knew was not true. Then he felt guilty when Kol looked frightened.

"It's not true. I was just teasing you."

"I won't go blind?"

"No. But quit that and get in the shower. You need to wash. You smell bad."

The bathroom was small and there wasn't really much room for the three of them. Kol stepped into the tub and was not careful with the shower curtain, so that water splashed onto the floor. Elijah pulled the curtain almost closed, leaving enough room for him to see what Kol was doing. The young man was standing under the spray, his mouth open to catch the water.

"This isn't going to work," Elijah said to Klaus. "He's just going to play with the water and the soap. One of us is going to have to help him."

"Be my guest. I don't have the patience for it. I'll go get some clean clothes for him."

The shower head was on a hose so that it could be hand-held. Elijah finally decided to treat Kol as a small child. He had the boy sit down in the tub. Kneeling beside the tub, Elijah closed the drain, and using the hand-held spray head, he managed to shampoo Kol's hair and wash and rinse him. Kol played in the water that slowly deepened around his legs and rear end. He played with the bar of soap and the bottle of shampoo, which floated.

"We need a rubber ducky," Elijah muttered to himself. He talked the boy into washing his groin area and then had to distract him from playing with himself again. He decided that Kol had regressed to only two or three years old. In fact, he told this to Klaus when he brought the clothes into the room.

"What is going to happen to him?" Klaus wondered aloud. "Is he going to become an infant? We'll have to get a private nurse or someone of that sort to care for him."

"Is he going to die after that?" Elijah asked.

Klaus just shook his head, disturbed by the thought. His cell phone rang and he left the bathroom to talk.

Elijah, who was at least half as wet as Kol, decided to go change his own clothes. He gave the boy another plastic bottle to play with and he turned off the water.

"I will be back in a minute, Kol," he said in the old tongue. "You play here and be a good boy."

"Alright," Kol said, grinning at him. He slapped the water to make a splash and gathered up some soap suds which he blew into the air.

It took Elijah more than a minute to change clothes, of course. He was about ready to leave his room when Klaus opened the door and asked, "Where is he?"

_A/N Gone again? Where to now? Has he wandered off or has someone led him away? We will see. I want to thank you all again for reading and following. I am hoping we see Kol again on either TVD or The Originals. If Mikael can come back, maybe so can Kol._


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Who?" Elijah asked, thinking Klaus could not mean Kol.

"Kol, of course. Where did you put him? What room did you give him?"

"I left him playing in the tub. Are you saying he is not there? He has wandered off on his own again?" There was alarm in his voice.

The two of them went down the hall toward the bathroom. "Here are wet footprints!" Klaus said suddenly. "Heading for the back stairs."

They followed the prints, which dried and became hard to find. "Where the hell did he go? He could be anywhere back toward the kitchen," Klaus growled. "Elijah, you have failed spectacularly at monitoring Kol's whereabouts."

"No thanks to you, Niklaus," Elijah said with a snort. "Since when am I his sole nursemaid?"

They sought Peter, who was sipping a drink in the ornate parlor. The old man said he had not seen Kol and he showed concern.

Haley, who had made a couple of sandwiches and who had been talking to Peter, was not as concerned. "He should be alright. What could happen to him?"

"We think he has regressed to an even younger child," Elijah said. "He could wander off and get into trouble."

A quick search of the downstairs rooms did not reveal Kol's whereabouts. The four people ended up on the back veranda, looking out into the night.

"The door was open," Klaus said. "He has to have wandered out here."

Shouts to Kol were unanswered. They were about to go back inside for flashlights when an animal came trotting up to Haley.

"That's a wolf!" Peter said in surprise.

"It's one of my pack, Peter," Haley said. "He's friendly. Up to a point."

"You told me you were a werewolf," Peter nodded. "And you did tell me a spell had been put on your pack, making them wolves all the time, except the night of the full moon. I just didn't think one was here."

"Most of them are here," Haley said. She reached out and laid a hand on the wolf's head. It whined, turned away and looked back. It whined again.

"Timmy's down the well again?" Klaus said with a snort, referring to an old "Lassie" story.

"Or Kol," Elijah said. "Follow the wolf."

Haley started walking into the dark grounds at the back of the house as she followed the wolf. The men followed her, making their way around vegetation. They called out to Kol, who didn't answer.

"He had better not have fallen into the bayou," Klaus growled with mixed anger and worry. He broke into a trot as Haley and the wolf did. Elijah and Peter trotted after them. Despite carrying a cane, Peter was actually very agile.

The big old house had been part of a real plantation a long time ago. The land was moderately high for the area, which was not saying much. There were bayous and marshes close by. The property even had a dock on the closest branch of the bayou. All of it was dark now because there was no moonlight, just starlight. Vampire vision in the dark was moderately good. So was that of Haley and the wolves.

Kol had not gone far. They spotted him in no time because his naked form was light in the darkness. He was sitting on the dock, dangling his legs over the water. As they got closer, they saw he had an arm around the neck of one of the wolves. Three others stood by.

"Kol, come to us," Elijah called gently in the old tongue.

"Nice doggy," Kol told them, grinning. There had been dogs in the original Virginia settlement.

"Get off the dock, Kol," Klaus ordered.

"Be careful," Peter said. "Let's not scare him."

"We know that!" Klaus snapped, but not loudly. "Haley, call your wolves off the dock."

The young woman calmly called to the three that were not close to Kol. She called them by name.

"Do they understand what we say?" Peter asked. He had never met a werewolf, as far as he knew, other than Haley, and she was in her human form.

"Sort of," Haley said. "In wolf form, they have the intelligence of a good Border Collie. Moderate, but not like a human. They each have individual personalities and they know their names. That's Cassandra close to Kol. I think she is being protective of him right now. In her human life, she has two teenaged kids. Klaus, don't move on her yet."

"I want Kol off this dock before he falls in," Klaus said.

"Cassie, bring Kol here. Bring him here. Good girl," Haley said.

The wolf backed a bit away from Kol. He stood up without falling in the water and he moved to follow her. She let him grab a fistful of her thick coat. She then led him off the dock and onto the grass. Since he kept a grip on her fur, she remained close to him and she growled when Klaus moved toward her, her eyes glowing.

"Kol, let the doggie go and come over here, please," Elijah said, beckoning the "child."

"Can I keep it?" Kol asked, bending down and planting a kiss on Cassandra's head. The wolf licked his free hand.

"No. It belongs to Haley here. It lives outdoors in the woods with the other ones. They belong together."

Kol's face scrunched up, looking like he was going to cry.

"Come in the house," Klaus said in a reasonable voice. "It is cold out here and you have no clothes on. Come along, Kol. Be a good boy."

In a moment, Kol gave in and let go of the wolf. He moved to Elijah's side and the older brother put his coat over the naked shoulders. It didn't quite cover him decently and Haley turned away. The men followed her to the house, while the wolves disappeared into the nearby woods.

Once inside, the older brothers inspected the youngest and found he had dirty feet and dirt on his rear end from sitting on the dock, but he was otherwise alright. They took him up to the bathroom where Klaus had left the clothes and Elijah dressed him.

"You must not wander off like that, Kol," Klaus instructed. "Stay in the house. Do you understand?"

Kol nodded.

"We'll have to watch him carefully," Elijah said in English. "This house is not childproof by any means."

Klaus sighed. "I suppose you are right. There are some expensive breakable items here."

"I remember! I did it!" Kol suddenly announced after they left the bathroom and headed for the stairs. Kol halted to inspect a painting of a lady on a pinto horse. The woman carried a black shield with a golden emblem on it. The boy stared at it.

"What did you do?" Elijah asked. He and Klaus had stopped walking also.

"I hid it. I hid it really good."

"What did you hide?" Klaus asked. When had Kol had time to hide anything?

"That thing you like," the youngest brother said as he pointed at the painting. He looked at Klaus, who eyed the painting with a frown.

"I don't know what you mean. Tell me."

"The thing Papa showed you."

"What thing, Kol. You aren't making any sense," Klaus said, frustrated. "Papa is gone. He hasn't showed me anything."

"He did! I saw him show it! You took it and played with it. You said you wanted it. Papa said you couldn't have it."

Baffled, Klaus looked at Elijah.

"What can he be thinking of?"

Looking at the painting and noting the shield, an idea came suddenly to Elijah, an old memory. A bad one. "Is it possible he means the broach Father had? The golden one?" he said in English. "Almost like the design on that shield?"

Klaus looked a little shocked. "No! He can't mean that!" His eyes turned to the shield.

"He's talking about our father Mikael as if he were still alive. Little boy Kol would do that. He's gone back to early childhood, Niklaus. He could be remembering that very time."

"Kol, did you take the pretty gold thing and hide it?" Klaus asked in a hushed voice.

"I did! I thought you would look for it. I thought you would find it."

"Oh my God!" Klaus murmured and unbidden tears came to his eyes.

"He had no idea what would happen," Elijah said, knowing this revelation hurt Klaus. They both remembered the incident way too well. The golden broach had been valuable and important to Mikael, it having been given to him by his own father. The young boy Klaus had seen it and had wanted it, not really understanding its value. Mikael had told him he could not have it or play with it.

Then it had disappeared. When the father had found it gone, he had assumed Klaus had taken it. Despite the boy's denial, Mikael had beaten him, very badly. It had frightened their mother Esther and the older brothers Elijah and Finn, but little Kol had not been at the scene of the beating and Rebekah had been an infant. The littlest brother had had no idea what had happened that put Klaus in bed for quite some time.

Klaus couldn't now face Kol and he walked off and down the stairs. Elijah was left with his confused brother.

"Is he mad at me?" the boy asked worriedly.

"No. He's upset about something else. Do you remember that he was sick in bed after you hid the golden thing?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you tell anyone you hid it?"

"I forgot."

"Do you remember where you hid it?"

"By the bear cave. I dug a little hole and put it there. Should I go get it?"

"No. Not now," Elijah said calmly with a touch of sadness in his voice. It was way too late to save Klaus from that beating. If the broach was still buried by the cave, it could be retrieved later. The location was in Mystic Falls, Virginia.

"I wanted to tell," Kol admitted. "I forgot. Mama was crying 'cause Niklis was sick. I remembered. I wanted to tell. But I didn't."

Elijah didn't know what to think. He knew Kol was very confused about time frames. Had he remembered in just the last couple of days or had he remembered a long time ago and never told anyone? Maybe it was because he was regressing so far back that old memories were coming to him. Perhaps it was because he had been brought out from the Other Side and was human again. Elijah suspected that Kol could not explain, in any case. Hopefully, Niklaus would not tell about the beating and force guilt on the "boy."

"I'm hungry, Lijah," Kol said, obviously not worried about the broach or Klaus' feelings now. Hunger was a more pressing matter to him.

_A/N Just how young is Kol going to get? Can he get into anymore trouble? We shall see._


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"I am sure you are hungry. You haven't eaten in hours. Let us go downstairs and see if Haley made you something to eat," Elijah said and he walked with his brother to the stairs. Kol took his time going down the stairs because he found the carved rail and balusters fascinating. He also stopped to look at the framed pictures on the wall.

Finally they reached the parlor where Peter, Klaus and Haley were sitting and talking. Haley had put a tray containing the sandwiches and a glass of milk on the coffee table, and Kol sat down cross-legged on the floor so that the plate was right in front of him. He looked up at Elijah, a questioning expression on his face. When the oldest brother nodded, the youngest eagerly picked up one sandwich and bit into it, chewing with his mouth open.

Elijah's phone rang and he took the call. It was the witch Melinda.

"Elijah, I learned something about how your brother got out from the Other Side."

"I am pleased to hear that, Melinda. What was it that happened?"

"I found out that a friend of mine, a witch in Memphis, did a spell to open a tiny rift in the veil so she could bring out a friend of hers for a short time. They needed to talk. The friend was a woman, another witch. When the witch came through and suddenly appeared in an alley in Memphis, she was not alone. Kol was with her. They were together and in a state of undress. They may have been intimate, if you know what I mean."

"They were nude together? I didn't think that happened on the Other Side. I thought each person was alone," Elijah said while the others listened.

"Not all the time, it would seem. Anyway, this happened in Memphis, not in Virginia where you said your brother went to the Other Side. They must be able to move around. Having never been there, I don't know how that works."

"Neither do I. They must be able to travel in some way, or Kol would not have come through in western Tennessee. At least that explains why he appeared in Memphis and why he lacked clothing."

"I'm sorry to say the women abandoned him there," Melinda said in an apologetic tone.

"You have no idea why he is human or why he is mentally regressing?"

"No. The witch came through as human, but she was human to begin with. I don't know if her mind is affected. I didn't think to ask."

"Thank you so much, Melinda, for this information. Kol is mentally between two and three years old now. We don't know where this is going to end. Perhaps you can talk to your friend again and see if something similar is happening."

With the call ended, Elijah ran through the conversation again with the others. Kol, who couldn't understand them, happily ate his sandwiches and drank some milk.

Klaus related to Peter and Haley what Kol had admitted to and how that had led to the father Mikael severely beating him, Klaus.

"My father truly despised me," the blond man said, shaking his head slightly.

"It is sad for a child to be rejected by a father," Peter said. "My mother died with my birth and my father wanted nothing to do with me. I was raised by my mother's family in Richmond and had a happy childhood. I never saw my father, but I heard that he could be cruel. He didn't care much for Damon either and often treated him poorly. The only one of his children he loved was Stefan."

"You are related to Damon and Stefan?" Haley asked, surprised.

"Yes. Believe it or not, I'm the baby brother."

Haley laughed. "I never would have guessed that."

Kol, seeing her laughing, grinned too. Elijah, Klaus and Haley had to smile at the innocent pleasure they saw on Kol's face. There was none of the maliciousness that had characterized the hundreds of years of his adult life.

They heard the front door open and in a moment Rebekah walked into the room. Her eyes went right to Kol, sitting on the floor. She went to him and leaned down, smiling.

"Hello, Kol. Good to see you," she said in the old language.

He smiled, but he also looked confused.

"He doesn't know me, does he?" she asked, glancing at Elijah.

"No. In his present mental time frame you were an infant. Kol, this is our sister Rebekah. She suddenly grew up while you were asleep."

Kol looked at Elijah, but he still seemed confused.

"The baby?"

"Yes."

Kol didn't ask for further explanation, for which Elijah was glad. There was nothing he could tell the "little" boy that would really explain.

Kol produced a huge yawn.

"Are you ready for bed?" Klaus asked. Like the others, he was not happy with this regression situation even though it meant Kol was with them and was a nice little fellow.

Kol shook his head "no", but in a moment he yawned again.

"I think you are," Klaus said with a grin. "It is very late and you can hardly keep your eyes open."

"I want my milk first," Kol told him, reaching for his glass with both hands as a small child might. He lifted it and drank, while some of the milk trickled down his chin.

Elijah stood up and moved close to Kol. "Stand up now. I'll go upstairs with you." He used a paper napkin from the tray to wipe the milk from his brother's chin.

When Kol tried to stand, he could not. He lost his balance like a young toddler and sat down with a thud. A look of surprise came over his face. He held his arms up to Elijah in the "pick me up" gesture. Elijah went down on one knee and scooped him up with arms under his knees and back. Kol rested his head on his brother's shoulder.

"Damn! This is not good," Klaus growled. Then he smiled when he saw a worried look on the boy's face. "I'm not mad at you. You are a good boy." He was rewarded with a relieved smile on Kol's face.

The whole group followed Elijah up the stairs and to the door of the unused bedroom he chose for his youngest brother. Klaus, right behind him, moved to open the door and flip on the light switch. It was not a big room, but was nicely furnished with a four-poster bed, dresser, armoire and night table. An ornate writing desk and a chair sat near the window. Like many of the other rooms in the house, this one had a ceiling fan.

Elijah laid Kol down, his head on the pillow, and then sat down on the edge of the bed. He was close to Kol's right side. By bending his right knee onto the bed, he could turn so that he was facing the head of the bed and smiling down at the boy. Kol smiled back and wiggled close against Elijah. He turned his body a little and put his head on the oldest brother's lap.

Elijah found himself putting his arms around Kol and bringing him up higher so that the boy was snuggled against his chest. It was a bit awkward because of Kol's real size, but Elijah held him close. The warm body was so human and Kol was so trusting that it tugged at his heart. Kol had no idea that a blood-sucking vampire was holding him and, at the moment, that was the farthest thing from Elijah's mind.

Rebekah climbed onto the bed from the other side and sat on the pillows. Laying a hand on Kol's back, she leaned down and put a kiss on her young brother's cheek. At the same time, Klaus knelt down beside the bed and rested one hand on the soft brown hair, no longer damp from the earlier shampoo. He could feel the warmth of his now-human brother's scalp. His resentment over the golden broach incident had faded away. It was too far in the past.

Haley and Peter stood by the door watching this family tableau. They both knew that the siblings didn't normally demonstrate such caring togetherness. Despite everything, there was a strong family bond there. At the moment, they were allowing their love to surface and show.

Kol looked up at Elijah. His expression showed that he felt loved and was contented. He closed his brown eyes as he relaxed against his big brother, safe in the strong arms.

The siblings, however, could hear his heart slowing more and more. They suspected that he was dying right before their eyes and there was nothing they could do. None of them made a move to try to turn him into a vampire. It didn't seem the right thing to do. For a long moment, no one moved.

And then Kol was gone. He just vanished, clothes and all. Shocked, Elijah was left with his arms around nothing, while the warmth of the body remained for a brief moment. Klaus lowered his hand to his side and put his forehead down on the edge of the bed, as tears came to his eyes. Rebekah gave a little cry and sat up straight. Tears flooded her eyes also and spilled over to flow down her cheeks.

Elijah lowered his arms to his lap and swallowed the lump in his throat. He felt momentarily bereft and empty. He had lost Kol before and now he was gone again. And this had been the sweet young man of their childhood, not the cruel fellow he had later become.

"We had him for a while," Elijah murmured. "I am thankful for that."

"Yes," Klaus said, lifting his head, a sad expression on his face. He wiped at a tear that had escaped.

"Where do you think he is now?" Rebekah asked, brushing at the dampness on her face with both hands. "Did he go back to the Other Side? Is he an adult again? Or did this innocent boy finally go to a better place?"

"Perhaps we will never know," Elijah said, still somehow feeling the weight of where Kol had snuggled against him, but the feeling was fading fast, replaced by the nothingness. He knew he would remember it, though. He didn't understand how Kol had come through in Memphis, but he was glad Peter had been there to help him and to bring him to New Orleans. It was as if the siblings had had the chance to right some sort of wrong or to finish something left undone. It was a fact that this time they had been with Kol, as a loving family, before he was gone and they all felt better for it.

Klaus sighed and got to his feet. Without a word, he walked past Haley and Peter and left the room. They could hear his footsteps going down the stairs. Rebekah leaned back against the headboard.

"I'm so glad I made it here in time," she said. "I think I shall sleep in this bed tonight if no one else intends to do so."

"It is yours tonight," Elijah said, knowing that she had a room of her own. He got up from the side of the bed and headed for the door. Peter followed him as he went down the hall and down the stairs. As he reached the foot of the stairs, his phone rang. Once again it was the witch Melinda.

"Elijah, my friend in Memphis just phoned me. Her friend has died. Or rather, she vanished. Back to the Other Side, we suppose. This may happen to your brother. How is he doing?"

"He vanished just minutes ago, Melinda. We do not know for certain that he went back to the Other Side."

"I'm sorry."

"My siblings and I must be thankful for this unexpected time we had with him. It drew us very close. At least temporarily. Thank you for letting me know that the other person vanished also."

Elijah saw Klaus standing in the doorway. He had heard what Elijah had said. He turned and walked away again, his face expressionless.

To Peter, Elijah asked, "Do you need to go back to the city tonight?"

"No. Not if you can take me to my hotel fairly early in the morning. I must drive to Houston next."

Klaus did not drive back to the city either. Instead, he stayed at the mansion for the rest of the night along with Elijah, Rebekah, Peter and Haley. They all retreated to various bedrooms for a few hours' sleep and then arose for breakfast together. The wife of the caretaker served as cook when anyone was in residence.

Elijah did get a bit of enjoyment from being at the old mansion. He secretly was becoming very fond of Haley, the werewolf woman carrying Klaus' child. He felt pleasure whenever he was in her company, despite whatever disaster was happening. So, even though they had lost Kol, he experienced some hidden enjoyment while surreptitiously observing Haley at the breakfast table. Only half his attention was on Klaus' words as the blond man went on and on about the situation in the Quarter.

Finally, Klaus, Elijah and Peter went back to the city in the car driven by Klaus. Rebekah had her own car. Haley stayed at the mansion.

At the house in the Quarter, Klaus found a letter left earlier in the morning. It was from Patty Carmichael. In the letter she explained that her brother Al and his men had left town, but Al was allowing her to remain in the New Orleans area. She had money and the rental car. She had accidentally stumbled into an employment opportunity that would pay well enough to meet her needs for rent, etc. By asking people about Klaus and Elijah, she had located their in-town residence and was able to leave the note. She also said she hoped "Cole" had fully recovered from the vervain injection. Lastly, she admitted that she had been impressed with the Mikaelson Original vampires and their strong family ties.

Elijah read the letter also. "We might not have had the opportunity to help Kol if it were not for that young lady," he observed.

Klaus grunted and said, "Kol would not have needed that help were it not for her brother."

"Let it go, brother," Elijah said. "Some day your path may cross his and you can even the score. We have other concerns now."

Klaus just walked away. He had plenty of local business to attend to. Elijah left the house and walked the streets until he came to Jackson Square. As he had twenty four hours or so ago, he walked to the raised area that overlooked the waterfront and the river. He could not resist looking over to the spot where he had first seen Peter and Kol, but no one was there. He looked back at the water and stood watching the mighty Mississippi River ease on by. At least for the moment, he felt at peace.

_A/N So, this is the end of the story. I hope we see Kol again on the television series, either one of them. I hope you found this story a little different. Thank you all for reading, following, favoriting and commenting._


End file.
